Chapter 9: Yellow Hair

I was across the loft before Nate moved.

I went down on my knees in front of Lulu and took her cold face in both hands.

"Did you walk down here by yourself? In the dark?"

"I had Puffy."

"Past the dock?"

She nodded, less sure now.

My heart was going.

"Lulu," I said. "You don't ever go near that water alone. Not in the day, not at night. Never. Do you hear me?"

Her lip wobbled.

"I woke up and you weren't in the house," she said. "I checked your room. I thought you left."

The anger went out of me all at once.

I pulled her in against me, rain boots and all.

"I didn't leave," I said into her curls. "I'm right here. Rule number three."

"Don't leave," she whispered.

"Don't leave."

Nate crouched beside us and put his big hand on her back.

He looked at me over her head, and his face was raw.

"So are you?" Lulu said, muffled. "Gonna marry her?"

"Tonight," Nate said, "I'm going to carry you up to bed and put a bell on your door."

"A bell?"

"A big one. Like a cow."

"I'm not a cow."

"You walk like one in those boots."

She giggled, outraged, and he scooped her up.

We walked back up the lawn together in the rain.

He tucked her in. I sat on the end of the bed.

When she was asleep, he stood in the doorway a long minute.

"Tomorrow," he said quietly, "I'm putting a fence along the dock."

"Good."

"And a gate on the boathouse stairs."

"Also good."

He didn't come any closer.

Neither did I.

But when I lay in my room off the kitchen, I could still feel the window glass on my back and his mouth on mine.

On Thursday morning the board called again.

This time it wasn't just the chair. There were five voices on the speaker on the kitchen island.

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