River’s End

another child. He was so happy at first. So much like Sam. We laughed and held each other and started thinking up names, just as we did for Livvy. Then all at once, all of a sudden, he got moody and distant and he said . . .” The tears began to stream again. “He said how did he know it would be his? How did he know I wasn’t already carrying Lucas’s bastard?”
    “That son of a bitch. How dare he say such a thing to you.”
    “I hit him. I didn’t think, I just struck out and shouted at him to get out, get the hell out. And he did. He stared right through me, and he left. I don’t know what to do.”
    She sat on the bed again, covered her face with her hands and wept. “I don’t know what to do.”
    Noah said nothing as Olivia stood as she was, one hand still covering her stomach as her mother’s had. She’d taken him back, taken him there into the intimacy of that bedroom, into the female misery and despair. The words, the voices, the movements flowing out of her.
    Now, without looking at him, she dropped her hand. “I went back to my room, and I told myself Mama was rehearsing. She did that a lot. So I told myself Mama was being a movie, that she wasn’t talking about my father. I went to sleep. And later that night I woke up and he was in my room. He’d turned on my music box and I was so happy. I asked him to tell me a story.”
    Her eyes cleared when she focused on Noah again. “He was high. I didn’t know it then. I only knew he was angry when he shouted and he broke my music box. I only knew he wasn’t the way Daddy was when my mother came rushing in and he hurt her. I hid in the closet. I hid while she cried and fought with him and locked him out of the room. Then she came and sat with me and told me everything would be all right. She called the police on my little phone, and she filed for divorce.
    ‘‘It took him less than four months to come back and kill her.”
    Noah turned off his recorder, slid off the rock and walked to her. In automatic defense she stepped back. “No. I don’t want to be held. I don’t want to be comforted.”
    “Tough luck, then.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding firm when she struggled. “Lean a little,” he murmured. “It won’t hurt.”
    “I don’t need you.” She said it fiercely.
    “Lean anyway.”
    She held herself stiff another moment, then went limp. Her head rested on his shoulders, and her arms came up to wrap loosely around his waist. She leaned a little, but she kept her eyes open. And she didn’t weep.

Twenty-eight
    Noah asked questions on the hike back to camp, dozens of them. But he didn’t mention her parents. He asked about her work, her routines, the Center and the lodge. She recognized what he was doing and couldn’t decide if she resented or appreciated his deliberate attempt to put her at ease again.
    Couldn’t quite fathom why it worked so well.
    Every time she put up a barrier, he wiggled around it and made her comfortable again. It was a skill she had to admire. And when they stopped again, to look again, she found herself sitting shoulder to shoulder with him as if she’d known him all her life.
    She supposed, in some odd way, she had.
    “Okay, so we build the house right up there.” He gestured behind him to a rocky incline.
    “I told you, this is public land.”
    “Work with me here, Liv. We put it up there, with big windows looking out this way so we catch the sunset at night.”
    “That’d be tough, since that’s south.”
    “Oh. You sure?”
    She gave him a bland look with humor ghosting around her mouth. “West,” she said and pointed.
    “Fine. So the living room faces that way. We need a big stone fireplace in there. I think we should keep it open, really high ceilings with like a balcony deal. No closed spaces. Four bedrooms.”
    “Four?”
    “Sure. You want the kids to have their own rooms, don’t you? Five bedrooms,” he corrected, enjoying the way her eyes widened. “One for a guest room. Then I need office space, good-sized room, lots of shelves and windows. That should face east. Where do you want your office?”
    “I have an office.”
    “You need a home office, too. You’re a professional woman. I think it should be next to mine, but we’ll have to have rules about respecting each other’s space. We’ll put them on the third floor.” His fingers linked with hers. “That’ll be our territory. Kids’ play area should be on the main level, with windows looking into the