Chapter 24: Tent 4

In June, I drove back to Pine Hollow with the sapphire on a chain under my shirt.

The gravel lot was half full, and the trees were thick and green.

The Wall of Couples was gone from the east wall of the lodge.

In its place, Cal had hung a long pine shelf, and on it stood small framed photos of anyone who wanted one there.

There was a couple from the blue robe's tent holding a fishing trophy. There was the gray-haired man in the vest with his grandson.

There was a picture of Cal's mother at twenty, laughing, with a hammer in her hand.

Cal's cousin was at the front desk, eating pretzels.

"Name?" she said, with a perfectly straight face.

"Samantha Ames."

"Oh, good," she said. "You're on the list. Tent 4."

She slid a brass key across the counter.

A little tag hung from it, hand-lettered in Cal's neat print.

Tent 4. Reserved. Always.

I held the key in my palm for a moment.

"He made that last week," his cousin said. "He pretended he didn't."

Outside, Shanna was sitting on a bench by the cold bonfire ring in a big gray sweater, with a bundle against her shoulder.

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