Noah groaned when he realized what Wren was fixated on. “I forgot to do the breading.”
Wren grinned. “This means I won.”
Waggling a finger at her, Noah said, “Oh no. No way. That’s not how this works.”
Everything in their house had become a competition. Josie blamed it on Harris. Turning things into a game was an easy way to get him to do whatever they needed him to do. Then when Misty started giving Josie and Noah cooking lessons, they turned that into a competition as well. They both hated cooking but competing incentivized them. Since Wren’s arrival, making ordinary things into contests had helped them draw her out and learn more about her.
Or maybe the three of them were just ridiculously competitive by nature.
“Josie,” Wren said, ignoring Noah altogether. “Remember the chicken cutlets I made last weekend with the parmesan breading?”
“Yeah,” Josie said, her mouth watering at the memory. “They were excellent.”
Noah’s head whipped in her direction. “Traitor,” he hissed with mock indignation.
Trout barked, likely volunteering to judge Noah’s cutlets and anything else that would fit into his stomach.
Wren pointed at Noah’s cutlets. “No way are these plain, naked cutlets going to top mine. I’ll expect a bag of wild berry Skittles by the end of the week.”
Trout barked again.
“This system is rigged,” Noah groused, but the moment Wren turned her back, he gave Josie the biggest, goofiest smile she’d seen on him in a long, long time. Then he mouthed,Progress!
Her answering grin was instant. Josie snapped her laptop closed and pushed it aside. There was something stirring in her stomach. A fizzy, bubbly feeling. It was warm and sweet and made her limbs feel loose and relaxed.
The three of them sat down to eat. Josie shoveled food into her mouth while Noah and Wren argued about which was superior: Gummy Bears or Skittles. After a few moments, she realized the thing in her stomach was contentment, and whatever passed for it before had nothing on her present.
EIGHT
The noise didn’t register as unusual at first. It was the house settling. That’s what her mom had said. There were all kinds of bangs and creaks in old homes. She wasn’t used to the discordant symphony of this one, but her nervousness had fallen away with each mile they put behind them. This was the first place she’d felt safe in a long, long time. Here, in a different house, where her mother was carefree, he felt like something from a bad dream that faded with each hour. Maybe they could live like this from now on. They could just never go back. Stay, and be who they were in these moments they shared.
The sound came again. A small creak followed by a scrape.
The scrape of furniture dragging over hardwood. The chair she’d wedged under the knob no match for his steady pressure. It always gave. He always took.
She sat up straight and looked across the room at her mother. “Do you hear that?”
The light, happy smile on her mom’s face made her heart ache in her chest. It wouldn’t last. It never lasted. The monsters always came back. They followed. They stalked. They ruined everything.
“That noise,” she said over the thick ball of saliva forming in her throat. “It sounded like?—”
The unmistakable rattle of a doorknob cut off her words. Suddenly her mother’s spine was ramrod straight. “That’s the back door.”
Had he gone to the front first? Dragged some of the patio furniture away from the big window so he could peer in? Had he tried the door only to realize it was locked up tight?
She swallowed and it felt like a thousand razor blades going down her throat. “It’s not?—”
“Oh no,” her mother said quickly. “Definitely not.”
The hinges of the back door squeaked.
“Definitely not,” her mother repeated, sounding so sure of herself. “It can’t be. He doesn’t know where we are.”
Taking her mother’s cue, she stayed in place even though every cell in her body screamed,DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
There were heavy footfalls now. “Mom, I think we should leave.” Her hands shook. “Or hide. We should hide.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Everything is fine. It’s probably just the neighbor. I’ll go see.”
