Page 77 of Rainshadow Road

“How do you know so much about it?” Lucy asked, puffing with effort.

“I fractured an ankle when I was sixteen. Sports injury.”

“Football?”

“Bird-watching.”

Lucy chuckled. “Bird-watching is not a sport.”

“I was twenty feet up a Douglas fir, trying to get a view of a marbled murrelet. An endangered species that nests in old-growth forests. Naturally I was climbing without rigging. I caught sight of the murrelet chick and got so excited I slipped and fell, hitting just about every branch on the way down.”

“Poor thing,” Lucy said. “But I bet you thought it was worth it.”

“Of course it was.” He watched as she hopped forward on the crutches. “I’ll carry you the rest of the way. You can practice later.”

“No, I can do the stairs. It’s a relief to be moving around again. This means I can go to my studio tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow or the next day,” Sam said. “Don’t push too hard, or you’ll reinjure that leg.”

Lucy’s smile turned quizzical. His mood was difficult to interpret. Ever since her proposition, he’d been back to treating her with the impersonal friendliness of the first two days at Rainshadow Road. But it wasn’t precisely the same. At certain moments she had caught him glancing at her in a way that was both preoccupied and intimate, and she knew somehow that he was thinking about what had happened—or almost happened—between them that morning. And he was thinking about her claim that she would be fine with a no-strings affair. She knew that even though he hadn’t believed her, he wanted to.

By the time Lucy had made it into the house, she was sweaty and tired, but triumphant. She accompanied Sam to the kitchen, where Holly was having an after-school snack and Mark sat on the floor with Renfield.

“You’re upright,” Mark said, glancing at Lucy with a brief smile. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” she said with a laugh. “It’s good to be moving around again.”

“Lucy!” Holly hurried over to admire the crutches. “Those are cool! Can I try them?”

“They’re not for playing, sweetheart,” Sam said, bending to kiss his niece. He helped Lucy onto a stool at the wooden worktable, and leaned the crutches next to her. He glanced at Mark, who had pinned Renfield to the floor and was attempting to open his mouth while wearing a pair of heavy-duty gardening gloves. “What are you doing with the dog?”

“I’m trying to give him his third antiseizure pill.”

“He’s only supposed to have one.”

“What I meant was, we’re on the third attempt.” Mark scowled at the stubborn bulldog. “He chewed up the first one and sneezed the powder into my face. The second time I pried his mouth open with a dessert spoon and shoved the pill in. He managed to spit out the pill and eat the spoon.”

“He didn’t really eat the spoon, though,” Holly said. “He coughed it up before it went down.”

Shaking his head, Sam went to the refrigerator, took out a piece of cheese, and handed it to Mark. “Hide the pill in this.”

“He’s lactose intolerant,” Mark said. “It gives him gas.”

“Trust me,” Sam replied, “no one will notice.”

Looking skeptical, Mark shoved the capsule into the cube of cheese, and offered it to Renfield.

The bulldog gobbled down the cheese and plodded out of the kitchen.

“Guess what?” Holly asked Lucy, crouching on the floor to inspect her Aircast brace. “Dad and Maggie are getting married in two months. And I’m going on the honeymoon with them!”

“You finally set the date?” Sam asked Mark.

“We’re doing it in mid-August.” Mark went to the sink to wash his hands. “Maggie wants to get married on a ferry.”

“You’re kidding,” Sam said.

“Nope.” Mark blotted his hands. Turning around, he told Lucy, “A significant portion of our courtship occurred on the Washington State ferry system. It forced Maggie to sit with me until she finally realized how magnetically attractive I was.”

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