Chapter 8: The Second Cloak

Catriona's POV

Lorna came to Cutbank on Sunday with a pie, a boy and a grey wool cloak.

She stood on Otis's porch in her good coat, with her red-gold hair pinned up, and Emmett held her hand.

"Don't shut the door," she said. "Please. Five minutes."

I should have shut it.

Tobin had already come up behind me, and he was looking at Emmett.

"Hi," Emmett said, very small.

"Hi," said Tobin.

That was all it took.

They had shared a sandbox and a nap mat and a birthday cake, three weeks apart.

Otis looked at me over their heads.

I gave him a nod, and he took both boys into the yard to see the woodpile.

Lorna put the pie on the table and her hands in her lap.

"I came to say I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For all of it. For the stone." Her eyes filled.

"I never wanted Conall to do that to Tobin. I swear on my husband's grave.

"Emmett was so hot in my arms. I panicked, and I said it had to be tonight."

She said it so simply.

She'd been my friend for seven years.

She had held Tobin the day he was born.

"You said it had to be tonight," I said.

"I did. I was frightened." She wiped her face with her wrist.

"I've gone over it a hundred times. I know I'm the reason you left."

"You're not the reason, Lorna."

"I put my name forward for Luna," she said quickly.

"Only because I couldn't stand a stranger coming in. If you come back, I'll withdraw it that same hour."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Last Time He Called Me Dad from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.