Page 92 of Barefoot Lake

“I wasn’t⁠—”

“You were. Even if he didn’t hit you. Don’t downplay how he came at you or what he’s been doing to you.”

“No, I won’t,” she agrees.

I wrap an arm around her shoulders and tip her toward me for another hug. She said she was ok on the phone, but it’s still comforting to feel her breathing against me.

“So, you’ll stay tonight? We’re watching Disney movies and eating things that are bad for us.”

“I’ll stay.”

Alice smiles, and I think my heart could burst out of my chest.

“It’s safe to come back out now!” Alice hollers toward the door Piper hid behind, and I unwrap my arm from around her.

The speed with which Piper pops open that door makes me think she was sitting right behind it with her ear plastered to the wood. I don’t blame her, though. She’s always looking out for Alice, and I love that these two women have one another. Besides, she did me a solid, letting me come down and crash tonight, so she can eavesdrop all she wants.

Piper drops down on Alice’s other side and wordlessly hands me a Styrofoam box with buffalo wings inside. Alice recounts the rest of her trip down to Boston, including the unsanitary apartments and the discouraging discussion with her university. Piper sufficiently expresses her outrage over the situation, and we jointly support Alice for a while before she asks that we press play and watch over a hundred dogs cover themselves in soot. She says we can worry about her living situation and job another day.

Halfway through a film about a kitten trio and the alley cat father who stepped up, I look down and realize Alice has fallen asleep on my shoulder.

“Psst!” I hiss to get Piper’s attention, pointing to Alice when Piper looks over at me.

Piper carefully holds Alice up while I stand so I can carry her to Piper’s room. Once Alice is settled in the bed, I turn to see Piper holding out some black basketball shorts.

“From the former hookup pile. Don’t worry. They’ve been washed,” she whispers.

I’d literally gotten in my car and come straight here, so I didn’t bring anything with me. I take the shorts and follow Piper back into the hallway. She shows me to the bathroom and tells me there are new toothbrushes under the sink.

“Thanks. For the shorts and toothbrush, but also for letting me come down here.”

“Thanks for wanting to come.” She pauses. “You seem good for her. Don’t fuck this up.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.” Piper narrows her eyes at me, and I know this woman will look out for her best friend for the rest of her life.

“Good night, Jake. I like you,” she says as she moves toward her room.

“I like you, too, Piper. Good night.”

In the morning, the three of us have breakfast together before Piper leaves for work. Alice and I wish her strength to handle Bernard, who I understand is basically a disease. There are hugs all around.

Now that I’m here, I get to drive Alice back to Wilcox Grove. I know she would have been fine on the bus, but I’ll take any chance I get to spend time with her. Once we’re in the truck, Alice looks at me.

“There’s somewhere I’d like to take you before we head back. It’s not far. Is that ok?”

“Of course it’s ok.”

She leans toward me, tilts her head, and kisses my cheek.

“Thank you,” she says softly.

Alice gives me directions, and after a short drive, I park at the back of a sandy beach. Nobody else is around.

Once we’re out of the truck, Alice leans against the fender to slip off her shoes, so I follow suit. Holding her shoes in one hand, she laces the fingers of her other with mine.

Silently, we walk across the chilly sand, stopping where the foam from the waves just kisses our toes.