Excluded and Uninvited novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: I Forgive You

I went out onto the porch and pulled the door closed behind me.

Brandy stood at the bottom of the steps with her arms wrapped around herself and her face already wet.

She had always been able to cry on the first try.

"Cal," she said. "Thank God. I've been driving for two hours."

"Your location app is a good one."

"I was so scared you'd done something."

"What would I have done?"

"I don't know. Gone off somewhere. Hurt yourself." She came up two steps and I didn't move. "I know you ran. It's okay."

I stared at her.

"You know I ran."

"I'm not angry," she said. "I want you to hear that. People freeze or they flee. You fled. I'm the one who froze, so who am I to talk?"

Her voice was soft.

It was the voice she used on her mother's dog when it had eaten something.

"Come home," she said. "We'll fix the post. I'll say I was confused. We'll just be us again."

"Why do you want me home?"

"Because I love you."

"Why do you want me home right now?"

She blinked.

"What kind of question is that?"

"You drove two hours at night to a place you only know because of an arrow on a map."

"Cal."

"Brandy, why tonight?"

She looked past me at the cabin window.

I knew without turning that Katja was standing in it.

"The lease is in your name," Brandy said, very quietly. "The landlord called Tuesday. He wants the signature renewed by the end of the month."

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