Nodding, Lyle reached for a stepladder.Carefully lifting the clock from its mount, he carried it back to the counter.
“You see this here,” he said, pointing at the frozen clock face.“Song of Solomon, 8:6.Love is as strong as death."
Cassie and Luanne shared a look.
“Well,” Luanne said after a beat.“Ain’t that a cheerful little blessin’.”
Lyle chuckled as he wrapped the clock carefully in brown paper.“Did three tours in Nam.Scripture’s about as cheerful as I get.”
It was fully dark by the time they returned to Clifton—the hills swallowing everything but moonlight.
Luanne slowed as they turned into Margie’s drive, her headlights catching Nash’s truck still parked where Cassie had left it that morning.
“You want help?”Luanne asked, glancing toward the back of the Jeep.
They’d driven through two counties, stopping at every pawn shop listed on Connor’s receipts.Some had nothing.Others had more than she’d expected.The back seat was covered in bags now, filled with bits and pieces of a home that no longer existed.
“No.”Cassie was already unbuckling.“I got it.”She hesitated.“I’d invite you in, but I think I just need to be alone right now.”
“I get it.Call me if you need me.”
“I will.And—thanks, Luey.For today.For the funeral, for—”
“Girl, please,” Luanne muttered, waving her off.“We’re always friends.Hell, you could disappear for another ten years and we’d still be.”
Warmth hit Cassie at her words—and then something quick and painful.
She grabbed her bags from the back, pausing with one hand on the open door.“It’ll never be that long again,” she promised softly.
Then the Jeep was gone, rolling down the drive with its headlights sweeping once across the yard before disappearing into the dark.
Margie’s kitchen windows glowed warm ahead, voices drifting faintly through the glass beneath the steady chorus of cicadas.Bags in hand, Cassie crossed the yard and stepped inside, stopping just outside the kitchen.
Margie and Charlie weren’t alone.Nash and Junie sat opposite them at the table, listening as Margie spoke animatedly.
“Hey there, Cas.”Charlie was the first to notice her, and the room quieted, everyone turning toward her though she only had eyes for Nash.
He didn’t look angry or defensive.If anything, he seemed like he was taking her in, trying to read her.
“Looks like you found somethin’,” Margie said, nodding toward the bags in her hands.
“Yeah.”Cassie shifted her grip.“I’m just gonna go put this stuff down…”
The words trailed off as she stepped back and turned away.
In the spare room, she set the bags on the bed and stood there, feeling utterly directionless.She didn’t know if she should go back downstairs—if Nash even wanted her sitting at that table with Junie after this morning—or if it was better to just stay out of everybody’s way.
She was still staring at the bags when footsteps hit the stairs, then the hall.A moment later Nash appeared in the doorway.
“Thought maybe we should talk—” he started, just as Cassie exhaled, “I’m sorry about this morning—”
He tipped his head, mouth twisting slightly.“Two sorries in how many days?Thinkin’ it might be a record.”
A reluctant smile slipped through mood.“You’d probably be right.”
Downstairs, Junie let out a peal of laughter, followed by Margie and Charlie chuckling, and her smile evaporated.Her eyes flicked toward the hall.
“Junie…is she…okay?”
