Page 268

Trevor: i skimmed

Grandma Ruth: SOMEONE GET HIM

Julie: I’m five minutes away. I’ll grab him.

Trevor: no need

Trevor: i have transportation

Hudson: Do not take the ATV on the main road.

Trevor: define main

Hudson closed his eyes.

I laughed.

Patty: I’m bringing two desserts.

Sloane: Why?

Patty: In case the pies fail.

Sloane: The pies did not fail.

Patty: Then we’ll have extra desserts.

Hilary: Caldwell wants to know if Sloane brought the drawing supplies.

Sloane: Already set up on the back porch.

Precious Caldwell. He’d slowly returned to me over the past two months. Not all at once. At first, he watched me from across rooms. Then he sat near me without speaking. A week later, he handed me a drawing and waited while I looked at it.

I didn’t make him reassure me. I didn’t ask whether he forgave me. I simply showed up repeatedly. That became my apology.

Now he was talking to me more, sent photos of things he wanted to draw (I was honored to be added as one of his contacts on his phone), and had recently informed Hudson that I needed to be invited to his school presentation because “she knows how to pay attention correctly.”

Hudson looked over my shoulder. “You’re smiling.”

“I’m reading through the group chat.”

The same day I pulled Hudson and his family from the smoke-filled houses, Hilary had added me back.

The notification arrived while I was having my arm re-bandaged.

Sloane has been added to THE PACK.

Then, a second message followed.

Hilary: This time, please remain human.

Sloane: I will do my best.

No one removed me.

I still smiled whenever the notifications poured in.

The volume was terrible. The content was often useless.