Chapter 27: Come Home

Vaughn's POV

I had spent four days getting the garden floor of my house ready.

I put a rail on the stairs and a low bed in the back room, and I took every rug out of the hall so a small boy could run it.

On Thursday night I stood in the empty kitchen and practiced a speech.

It was a good speech.

It was the speech of a man who had run a company, and it had three points and a closing offer.

On Friday morning they let Sam out.

He walked through the ward doors in a mask the size of his whole face, holding a plain gray stuffed rabbit in one arm and my hand in the other.

Geneva had bought it in the hospital gift shop.

She had not let anything else into that room since the bear.

Sam named it Rabbit.

"It's a good name," I told him.

"It's a rabbit," Sam said. "It's what it is."

We reached the curb, and the car was waiting, and the air hit his face for the first time in weeks.

He stopped.

He pulled the mask down one inch and breathed in through his nose.

"It smells like a bus," he announced, delighted.

Geneva laughed, and put the mask back where it belonged.

Her aunt stood by the trunk with two bags and a look that told me exactly where I ranked.

I drove them to Lincoln Park because Geneva said yes to that much.

In the front hall, I gave the speech.

I did not give it well.

"The house is yours," I said. "The garden floor, the yard, all of it. You can stay as long as you like, and I'll move into the guest room upstairs."

"Vaughn."

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