Chapter 9: Until the Papers

Natalie's POV

My father's lake house sat at the end of a gravel road, ninety minutes north of the city.

I had not been there since the funeral.

Junie loved it at once.

She ran through every room in her socks and opened every cupboard.

She announced that the house smelled of Grandpa, and she was right.

Pipe tobacco and cedar had soaked into the walls.

By eight on Tuesday night she was asleep in my old bed, under my old quilt.

I sat in the kitchen with a cup of tea gone cold, watching the lake turn black.

Headlights came up the road at nine.

I stood at the window with my hand on the phone.

A grey sedan stopped in the drive.

Patrick Rask got out with an envelope in his hand and his collar turned up against the wind.

I opened the door before he knocked.

"How did you find this place?"

"Your father brought me here once, in his last year."

He held up the envelope.

"I wouldn't have come if it could wait."

"Come in."

He took his shoes off at the door without being asked. I noticed that.

We sat at the kitchen table where I had done my homework as a girl.

He put the envelope between us.

"Your father left me a second letter.

"I wasn't to open it until you had the shares. I opened it last night, and I think you should read it too."

"Why me?"

"Because it's about Junie."

My hand stopped halfway to the envelope.

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