Chapter 18: Back on the Dock

Jenna's POV

The next Friday my parents and I drove back up to McCall.

Nate had not asked what we planned to do about the booking.

He had left a message on my voicemail saying the east room was empty all weekend.

His aunt wanted my mother to see the hydrangeas in bloom.

No one else would be in the house.

My father spent all of Saturday in the aluminum skiff with its new spark plug.

He trolled along the reeds in his canvas hat.

My mother sat on the porch in the blue dress with a book open on her knee, and she did not turn a page for an hour.

I planted the cuttings in a row along the fence, with Nate's aunt on speakerphone telling me where.

Then I washed my hands under the garden tap.

At dusk my parents went in early.

My mother kissed my cheek at the door of the east room.

"Go and sit on the dock," she said. "It's a nice night."

"Mom."

"I'm sixty-one, honey. I know what a nice night is for."

She closed the door on my face and my laugh.

The lake was black and flat again, with one porch light across the water.

I sat at the end of the dock with my bare feet over the edge, and I heard the truck before I saw it.

Gravel, a door, the flashlight beam bobbing down the lawn.

It went out before it reached me.

"Evening, Mrs. Rask," Nate said.

"Not for long. The papers go to my lawyer Monday."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Six Rooms at the Lake, But None for My Parents from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.