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For a moment she says nothing. I have learned not to fill Rachel’s silences too quickly. Her gaze flicks toward the road, then the bear, then back to me.

“You’re right,” she says. The answer surprises me. Rachel folds her arms and goes quiet, her gaze dropping to the ground. “Keeping you here forever because the rest of us are nervous would be easier. That doesn’t make it right. I also don’t want your first experience of Hollis Springs to be me dropping you in the middle of town and hoping nobody loses their mind.”

I understand the difference. One is hiding. The other is preparation.

“Tonight,” she says. “When Laura, Blair, and Janet can come, we’ll figure out what you want the first step to be. Everybody can help think through the risks, but it’s your life.”

“My life.”

“Yes.”

I turn toward the road. Until now, every plan has been about keeping people from finding me. Tonight we will make one about letting me be found.

Chapter Eleven

Rachel

When I change out of my work shirt, I find the tiny leaf from Locke’s braid still tucked in the pocket. It has curled slightly at the edges during my shift. I set it carefully in the porcelain saucer on my dresser.

By early evening, my side yard has become the headquarters for a problem none of us knows how to solve. Laura brought sandwiches. Janet brought a notebook and three pens. Blair arrived still wearing the navy trousers and cream blouse she must have worn to court, although she kicked off her shoes under the folding table within five minutes. Shannon and Tom never left. Locke sits beside the unfinished bear, listening while the rest of us discuss what happens when he stops being a secret.

I set a bag of chips on the table. “Everybody eat before Blair starts assigning legal responsibilities.”

Blair points at me with half a sandwich. “I don’t assign legal responsibilities for free.”

Tom says something about waivers, and within seconds Shannon and Blair are arguing about homeowner’s insurance. Locke watches them with more interest than alarm. He’s gotten frighteningly good at recognizing teasing.

The bear stands behind him, still unfinished but already more bear than anything the five of us produced in four weeks. Green willow lies in sorted bundles across the grass. Locke’s competence is everywhere I look, which makes the conversation ahead feel even more uncomfortable.

I take the chair beside him. “All right. Town.”

Laura unwraps half a sandwich. “Maybe we start with what Locke wants before we start listing everything that can go wrong.”

Everyone turns toward him, and my mind immediately begins supplying answers. He wants to see Hollis Springs. He wants to know where the road goes. He wants to see the bear at the Harvest Festival. I know all of that because he has told me, which is exactly why I keep my mouth shut.

Janet opens her notebook and gives him her full attention. “What do you want?”

Locke looks at the notebook before he answers. Janet has already written several lines, though none of us has asked her to.

“You write everything.”

Janet glances down. “It helps me think.”

He considers that. “Good.”

Something about the simple approval catches her off guard. She straightens the notebook on her knee before looking back at him.

Locke looks toward the corner of the cottage before he answers her question. “I want to go to town. I want people to know I am here.”

The second sentence lands harder. Locke wants to be known.

He glances back at the bear. “I want to go where this goes.”

“The Harvest Festival is twelve days away,” Shannon says.

“I do not want to wait twelve days to see town.”

Laura nods. “Then those are two different things. Going into town and going to the festival don’t have to happen at the same time.”