Chapter 12: Two Lines

Caleb pulled the canoe cover over my head before the flashlight reached the door.

I lay on my side behind the hull with my knees against my chest.

The sleeping bag was wadded over my feet.

I heard him stand and cross the floor, and I heard the boathouse door creak open on a gust of rain.

"Mom?"

"Caleb." Diane's voice was calm. "What are you doing out here at one in the morning?"

"Checking the canoe. The storm."

"In the lantern light."

"I couldn't sleep."

There was a pause long enough for me to count my own heartbeats.

"The dock boards are slick," Diane said. "Take a jacket next time. And Caleb?"

"Yes."

"Tell whoever else is out here that the back door sticks. She should lift it a little when she pulls."

Another pause.

Then her footsteps went away, steady on the wet planks, and a door shut up the hill.

I pushed the cover off my face.

Caleb stood in the doorway with his back to me and one hand over his eyes.

"She knows," I whispered.

"She might not."

"She said whoever else is out here."

"I heard what she said."

We stared at each other in the lantern light, and for a second I thought we would panic.

Instead he started to laugh.

It was a silent, helpless laugh that shook his shoulders.

Then I was laughing too, face down in a life jacket, while the storm kept pouring.

When I finally walked back up the hill, the back door stuck, and I lifted it a little when I pulled.

Through the trees on the road, a car's headlights swung and went dark.

I noticed it, and I forgot it by morning.

Three weeks later I threw up in the Hartwell showroom.

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Fell for Her Stepbrother, Then Found Out She Was Pregnant from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.