Audra held her tongue, bided her time, took a moment to consider, then reconsider. If she made the offer, she was making a commitment. Her sanctuary of silence and solitude would be gone, erased from her life for the foreseeable future. Could she handle that?

“Why?” Deacon asked. “You want to come with us?”

She shook her head. Something told her that those tents weren’t quite as big on the inside as she pictured them to be.

“No?” The clinking of plates. The jingle of silverware.

“Maybe you should stay here,” she said. It was a crazy proposition, but it was also an empty house. There were three bedrooms with only one person to fill them while nine people battled the wind and rain a quarter mile away. “I mean, if you all want to stay in Pier Pointe longer.” She lifted her shoulders, dismissing the enormity of her suggestion. Did Deacon understand how big of a step this was for her? Could he possibly fathom how much courage it took? She’d been a loner for her entire life; to have him accept for the group was to change everything.

When Deacon didn’t respond, she pulled her attention from Jeffrey’s napkin and dared to peek up at him. She found him standing just as still as she was. He balanced a stack of dirty plates in his right hand, a glass of silverware in his left. A moment later, he was placing the dishes back on the table. He stepped around it, paused to look her in the eyes, and then drew her into a tight embrace.

“Thank you,” he murmured against the top of her head.

“Thank you,” she whispered in return. Because the promise of a new life was far bigger than the solitude she’d miss.

10

VEE STOOD DEEP in the orchard, her phone held aloft and the camera app focusing in on a straight column of trees. It was a great shot, one that would get her at least a few likes and comments on Facebook and Instagram. She texted the shot to Heidi.

Cherry orchard behind the house.

At least it’s pretty here. But boring! What’s up?

She considered cutting to the chase and asking about Tim, but she didn’t want to be obvious about it. Vee was pretty sure her best friend knew she had it bad for her brother, but to Vee’s relief, Heidi hadn’t ever brought it up. Then again, it would have been nice to have someone keep an eye on Tim for the next two months, keep her in the loop, let her know if anything weird was going on. It wasn’t as though Vee and Tim were a thing, but she had her hopes. He was the first boy she daydreamed about. She’d even practiced kissing her pillow, though she’d take that little detail with her to the grave.

Her phone blipped in her hand.

Cool, but looks like the boonies! LOL

Not much. Going 2 the movies 2nite.

Vee frowned at the text. She bet Heidi was going with Clara and Laurie. Maybe, since Vee was missing, they even invited Jenn along even though Jenn was a total drag. Jenn was the type of kid to rat on her friends if her parents so much as suspected she’d been doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. It was why the girls tended not to invite her to hang out. Clara liked to curse and Laurie loved dirty jokes, and both Vee and Heidi were “weird” with their dark clothes and choice of music. It wouldn’t have taken much for Jenn to blab to her mother after hanging out with a motley crew like them.

What movie? With Tim?

She bit her bottom lip and busied herself with Instagram while waiting for a reply. So what if Heidi knew Vee liked Tim? Wasn’t that what friends were for? If she and Tim ended up going out, it would just be an excuse for Vee to spend even more time at Heidi’s place. Heck, if she and Tim ended up getting married, she and Heidi would kind of be like sisters, and that would be pretty cool.

Don’t know yet LOL

Vee glowered at the screen. Don’t know what? she wanted to know. Don’t know what movie you’re going to see, or don’t know if Tim is going? Didn’t Heidi get that this was important? Vee was an entire country away, nothing but her and her dad—a father that, sooner rather than later, would forget all about her, lost in his work—and all Heidi could do was reply with her stupid LOLs. Vee squeezed the phone tight in her hand, attempting to subdue her mounting frustration, then began to type up a response:

Don’t know what?

Delete.

Don’t be a jerk.

Delete.

Why can’t you just answer?

Delete.

Stop being such a bitch!

No.

She closed her eyes and counted to five.

It’s going to be fine. Just write him an email in a few days. Take some creepy pictures and post them on Tumblr. Give him a reason to remember you. Give him a reason to miss you, Vee. Maybe the fastest way to most men’s hearts was through their stomachs, but the fastest way to Tim’s heart was through mystery. For all he knew, she was having a blast in Washington. Heck, for all he knew, Pier Pointe was full of guys twice as cool as him. Tim who? Oh, Tim Steinway? He was okay, she guessed, but the Washington boys were better. Darker. Way more dangerous.

The sky rumbled overhead and she sighed, tipping her face up to stare at the dark clouds above. If it kept raining, she’d be stuck in the house all summer. She’d never meet anyone, let alone any boys. Not that her dad would mind. Rain was a convenient excuse for staying in rather than going out. Except that when Vee tipped her chin away from the sky, she came face-to-face with a wide-eyed kid standing at the edge of the trees. She blinked at him, startled by his sudden appearance, perplexed by where he had come from. He looked older than Tim by at least a few years—probably still a teen, but definitely out of high school. Vee peered at him, waiting for him to speak. But rather than talking, his mouth curled up into a grin that gave her the creeps. It was a crazed sort of smile, the kind only a serial killer wore. Disturbed enough to take a single backward step, with her movement she seemed to shake him from his otherwise static state. And yet, despite the chill he’d sent down the backs of her arms, when he turned and bolted out of view, she yelled out after him.

“Hey!” She was too curious not to follow. Rather than turning back to the house, she dashed to the end of the orchard’s row. Someone whooped in the distance. Had it been the creepy wide-eyed boy, or someone else? She could hear girls laughing. No, there was more than just the boy. There was a whole group of them, people out in the forest beyond the house who she could only assume shouldn’t have been there.

“Hello?” She waited for someone to respond, for someone to surface. There was another round of laughter. Then, a scream.

Vee froze. Blanched. The cry sounded terrified, a yell she imagined emanated from the throat of someone who had stumbled onto a dead body in the heart of the woods. She hovered at the edge of the trees, wondering whether she should investigate or go get her dad. Forget it, she thought. You don’t need him. For a guy who had once pretended to be a vampire in his spare time, her dad could be really lame. He tried to come off as hip with his music and cool because he didn’t have some boring office job, but in the end he was just like every other adult: Dull. Ordinary. Totally boring. If Vee told him she heard screaming in the woods, she doubted he’d jump up and announce they were going to investigate. He’d just say it wasn’t any of their business and call the cops.

But Vee wanted it to be her business. This was her home, no matter how temporary, and that weird-looking guy had stared right into her eyes before taking off into the trees. What if he knew Vee had overheard that scream? What if that guy had been a lookout, and now Vee was a witness to some sort of crime? True, she hadn’t seen anything, but maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe just hearing the cry made her a target.