Page 55 of The Life We Left Behind

“This is so cool,” he shouted back, clearly having made it a lot further inside than I’d anticipated.

I fumbled along the wall, searching for the switch. I was certain it had been around here somewhere. Most of the barns were set up the same way, and this was the third one we’d explored this morning. It shouldn’t be this difficult to find.

This morning, showing Cade and Blake around the farm had seemed like a good idea. Now, I was pretty sure I wasprematurely going gray from the stress of trying to prevent Cade from dying by farm machinery.

“What is this stuff?” Cade called out just as I found the light switch and the murky gloom of the inside of the barn was suddenly illuminated.

It took me a moment to clear my eyes from the sudden bright light, and then they widened in wonder.

“I can’t believe he still has all of this,” I gasped as I wandered further inside.

Blake went straight to the crates of bottles in the corner. “Whoa, was Daddy James holding out on us?”

She pulled a bottle free, holding it up to the light to see what was inside.

None of the bottles were labeled. They never had been. This wasn’t something that had been made for resale, even if it did sometimes exchange hands with the town locals when there was a big party happening somewhere.

“It’s cider,” I told her, going over to the press and turning the handle to see if it still worked. “Has he still been making this all this time?”

Blake looked at the impressive stack of crates in the corner with a grin. “I’d say so.”

“Can we drink it?” Cade asked, eyeing the bottles in interest.

“Erm, probably. We just need to figure out which is cider and which is hard cider. You know, I used to make this with Grandpa when I was your age,” I told Cade, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he came over to stare into the press. “My mom planted the orchard, and we used the fruit from there to make it.”

Cade wrapped his arm around my waist and leaned into my side. “This is really cool.”

My stomach pitched for what felt like the millionth time since we’d got here. I could see why Cade wanted to stay. Fora kid who grew up in the city, a place like this would seem like a massive adventure. Maybe it was worth it. Maybe the life we could build here would make up for any difficulties we had with Trace and his family living in the same town.

Blake must have seen my face because she called across to us, “Hey Cade, how about we go and check out this orchard? There’s got to be a tree around here somewhere that you can climb.”

He immediately leaped into the air, fist-pumping as he did. “Yes! Race you there.”

And then he darted out the barn door.

Blake came to join me, and we slowly made our way out of the barn.

“He doesn’t know where he’s going,” I pointed out, and she just shrugged.

“He’ll come back when he figures that out. How much trouble can he really get into running around this place?”

We weren’t too far from the house, but the orchard was in the other direction than I could see Cade currently running off to.

“Cade! This way!”

He turned quicker than should have been possible and darted back toward us.

“The kid has more energy than any one person has a right to.” Blake laughed. “At least he seems to be doing okay with all this.”

“Yeah.” I watched as Cade gave us a toothy grin as he ran past and carried on up the track, which would eventually lead him into the orchard. “I’m worried that it means he’s not really dealing with it at all, though.”

“I think he’s dealing with it all in his own way. Maybe that’s why he seems so fixed on moving here. Being in Willowbrook is probably raising more questions than he’s ever really considered, or felt like he could ask.” I winced at that.

How could I not?

It was clear that I should have been more open with Cade about where he came from a long time ago.

“I’m worried about you,” Blake added, and I looked at her in surprise.

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