Claiming the Spare Twin novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Cold Creek After Dark

We left at nine that night, in Dorran's truck, with no one else.

"Keegan wanted to come," Dorran said, as the lodge lights fell away behind us.

"I'm glad you said no."

"I didn't say no. I told him if he followed us I'd put him on kitchen duty for a month."

"That works?"

"He's been on kitchen duty twice this year. He ate the inventory."

I laughed, and it surprised both of us.

The road down to Cold Creek ran through black pines, and the headlights made a tunnel of them.

Dorran drove with one hand on the wheel and his window cracked, and the cold air smelled of leaf mold and frost.

I had asked to come the minute Keegan showed me the camera still.

I had to see my sister's face when I knocked.

"You want to hit her," Dorran said.

"I want to ask her why."

"After you hit her."

"After," I admitted.

He nodded once. It was the nicest thing he'd said to me yet.

We drove another few miles without talking.

I was still cold from the porch, and I couldn't make my hands stay warm.

"Take the jacket behind your seat," he said.

I reached back and found a heavy canvas coat that smelled of him, wood smoke and soap and something darker.

I put it on.

It came down past my knees.

"It suits you," he said, without looking over.

"It's enormous."

"It's yours until the Hollow Bridge."

Ten minutes later, a deer stepped into the headlights.

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