Page 75 of Heart of the Sun

“What if they ask why?” Uriah asked.

“Tell them you don’t know, but that your dad has some information he’d rather share in person.”

Uriah and Luca left the room, and a moment later, the front door opened and closed.

“I’m gonna go guard our road from the porch again,” Kyler said enthusiastically.

“Just make sure to stay on the porch,” his mother said. “Come get your father if you spot anyone.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The boy skipped out of the room. To him, at least for now, this was an adventure, and I hoped it’d remain that way, though I was all but certain it would not.

Tom turned back to us. “The families I sent Uriah and Luca to are the neighbors I trust the most. We all have different resources. That will be important.”

I nodded, glad I was right that he was already planning.

“Okay,” Jane said, the word breathy and filled with worry, “we’ll get a plan underway in the morning. Right now, I’m going to go to the shed and start bringing in some pots to put in the back room. It’ll be our temporary greenhouse.” She stood, and I thought her legs trembled a bit. What we’d said had obviously scared her, and I was sorry for that, but I also wasn’t because if they weren’t scared, they weren’t living in reality, and they wouldn’t do what needed to be done.

“Can I help?” Emily asked.

“You can help by collecting the eggs from the henhouse,” Jane said with a wobbly smile. I sensed she needed a bit of time alone and couldn’t blame her for that. She was a mother with three children and she’d just learned that hordes of people would likely be arriving on their doorstep in the weeks ahead, not to mention that the situation was going to last several years.I still felt slightly dazed when I thought about that. Staying on the move was helping me cope, and ensuring it settled little by little.

“Sure. Of course,” Emily said with a smile.

“There’s a basket in the kitchen near the backdoor,” Jane said as she turned away. “And thank you.” Jane exited the room quickly, and Tom watched her with a frown.

“Emily, while you see what the girls left for us, I’ll show Tuck to the room you’ll be sleeping in.”

“We’re really perfectly happy in the barn, sir. We have sleeping—”

“Nonsense. I said that before I spent a few minutes with you. You’ve given us invaluable information and you’re obviously good folks. We have a guest room and I insist.”

I met Emily’s eyes as she stood, hers flaring slightly with something I couldn’t read. Discomfort, perhaps, and I could only assume it was because we’d have to figure out a sleeping arrangement. I didn’t mind taking the floor though. In fact, I’d been sleeping on the floor by choice since getting out of prison. And after bedding down on the hard ground, a portion of carpet would be a luxury.

Emily headed toward the kitchen where Tom pointed her, and then he helped me bring our backpacks and gear up the narrow set of steps. The room was small and cozy, a handsewn quilt covering the double bed, and a few more carefully folded over a quilt stand next to the dresser. “I’ll get you a few candles and a lighter,” Tom said. “There’s a bathroom in the hall and water in the bathtub, but the plumbing obviously isn’t working, and our water stopped running days ago. I hate to ask you to use the woods out back but—”

“Sir, we’ve been using the woods for a week. We’re grateful for the bed, and the roof over our heads.”

Tom nodded. “It’s going to get bad, isn’t it?”

He was looking at me man-to-man, a father with a family to protect and a community of neighbors he cared for.“Yes,” I said honestly. “It’s likely going to get very bad.”

* * *

I spent a few minutes arranging our stuff and setting up an area near the end of the bed where I’d sleep. Then I went downstairs and, finding the house empty, walked through the kitchen toward the back door to look for Emily and help her gather eggs if she needed it.

The chickens were situated a few hundred feet behind the house, a cobblestone path leading from the back door to the red coop. The sun shone down, and for the first time in a week, the sky appeared somewhat normal, fluffy white clouds dancing amidst a purply blue. I spotted Emily inside the pen, her back to me as she reached inside the coop and retrieved the eggs, setting them gently in the basket next to her on the ground. As I moved closer, the scent transported me back to the chicken coop on Honey Hill Farm, Emily’s golden hair shiny under the sunlight. A yearning filled the space between my ribs so suddenly that it made me suck in a breath. I hadn’t felt a longing for home like that in years.

Or maybe I just hadn’t allowed myself to. But now, standing here, breathing in the animals and sunshine and the fresh, open air, and seeing her among it all, the way she’d once been, I let myself feel it. Let myself remember what it’d felt like when a home like this had been mine.

Emily opened the gate and walked through, her face breaking into a smile when she saw me. Pleasure radiated inside me.It always felt so damn good to make you smile.And the moment made me remember exactly why.

I met her near the gate. “Walk with me?”

“Haven’t we done enough of that?”

I chuckled. “A stroll. Just to check out the property.”

She smiled and then shaded her eyes as she looked across the back field. “It is pretty, isn’t it?”

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