Chapter 21: What Gil Heard

Diana's POV

My phone buzzed at seven in the morning.

It was Dex.

Your dad talked to me on the sidewalk for an hour. He didn't hit me. He bought me a coffee. I have no idea what happened. He's coming to see you.

I read it twice.

Then I put on a sweater and sat on the cottage porch with my own cup, and I waited for the green truck.

It came at eight.

My father got out with a thermos under his arm.

He walked up the path slowly, looking at the railing Boone had fixed.

"That's good work," he said.

"He did it for free."

"He would." He stopped at the bottom step. "Can I sit?"

I moved over.

He sat down heavily on the step below mine, with his back half-turned, and unscrewed the thermos.

For a while he just looked at the pear tree.

"Your mother and I bought the house in nineteen ninety-six," he said. "The walls were always thin. She used to say she could hear me think."

"Dad."

"I'm telling you this because I'm about to say something, and I need a run at it." He poured coffee into the lid. "I heard them, Di."

I didn't understand.

"I heard the boys," he said. "Through the wall. On a Friday in August."

My cup stopped halfway to my mouth.

"I came down after midnight for my reading glasses. I'd left them on the den table."

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