Zale smiles with obvious relief.
“You’re safe with me, too,” he says. “I promise you that.”
He reaches for my hand and gives it a quick squeeze before he disappears, and my heart races with the energy of his touch. I stand up and grab for the wooden railing outside the kitchen door to steady myself, but something bites at me and I draw back with a hiss. It’s too dark to see, but I feel a long splinter lodged under the skin of my palm. I figure I better get on inside and let Honey dig it out, so it doesn’t end up getting infected. But when I open the kitchen door, I hear Honey upstairs, laughing on the phone with her sister. And that could be a while. So I head back to my bedroom to find Case’s Saint Sebastian medal in my underwear drawer.
That’s one huge secret I can’t let fester any more.
As soon as Honey gets off the phone, I’ll show it to her. And she’ll know what to do.
I wrap the little medal back up in the tissue and stick it in my pocket, then I go out to the front steps to wait.
Only someone is already out there. Waiting for me.
Hart’s curls are wild and tangled, and his shoulders are slumped. He’s staring out at the river as the smoke of an exhaled cigarette lingers above his head in the yellow porch light. Honey would kick his ass from here to Kinter and back if she caught him smoking on her front steps, but judging by the looks of him, he probably doesn’t care.
It makes me jumpy to know that maybe he was sitting right here, just on the other side of the house, while Zale and I were out back.
I slip off Elora’s ring and hide it in my pocket like a stone before I drop down to sit beside him. I feel my secrets, huge and heavy.
If I fell into the river, the weight of them would pull me straight to the bottom.
I know Hart can feel them, too, but he doesn’t say anything. He just keeps his eyes on the river as he shakes out another cigarette and lights it up. I watch him pull the smoke into his lungs and hold it for a long time before he finally blows it out.
“I don’t know what to say,” he tells me. “About last night. I just –”
My cheeks burn. “Forget it,” I mumble. “It doesn’t matter.”
I feel the dull throb of the splinter lodged deep in my palm.
The beginnings of heat and redness.
Infection.
“Don’t say that, Greycie. It matters.” Hart flicks away ash and puts the cigarette to his lips again. “It’s just, everything’s all fucked up.” He tips his head back to exhale words and smoke at the same time. “I’m all fucked up.”
We sit there together for what feels like a long time. Silent. And if he can feel anything from me at all, I hope Hart feels how much I love him.
After a few minutes, he gets up and walks across the boardwalk to stand on the dock and stare out at the wide, rolling water. He doesn’t even smoke. He just lets his cigarette burn all the way down until it becomes a column of ash and finally goes out in his hand.
He’s burning himself to the ground.
The air moves, and Evie’s wind chimes ring out like voices. They sound like whispered secrets.
And warnings.
I get so lost in their musical murmuring that the other voice doesn’t register at first. Not until I see Hart turn around with his jaw set tight.
And there’s Case, standing not five feet away from him.
Jesus.
Where the hell did he come from?
“You hear me? We gotta settle dis, Hart.” When I get to my feet and cross the boardwalk, Hart moves to put himself between Case and me. “I didn’t do shit to Elora. And you know it.” The look in his eyes makes it clear that Case is itching for a fight.
And Hart is happy to give him one.
His muscles coil, and I grab for his arm. But it’s too late. He launches himself at Case without a word, and they both go down. Hard. Spilling across the dock. While I watch. Frozen.
They trade blows – all fists and elbows – as they roll together on the white boards. They growl and snarl. Two mad dogs going after each other. If Honey were here, she’d turn the hose on them, like she used to do with the mean old hounds that Evie’s uncle, Victor, kept out behind the house.
I hear a screen door slam, and Evie appears beside me on the boardwalk. I wonder if she was watching us again. Spying on Hart and me from her bedroom window.
I reach to put an arm around her, and Evie presses herself against me, halfway hiding behind my back. Every time Case lands a punch, I hear her react with a pained little yelp, and when he somehow scrambles to his feet and kicks Hart hard in the ribs, she muffles a scream.