Page 33 of The Homecoming

Ben did not look amused. “Someonewas supposed to come help me whensomeonegot off the phone, and then thatsomeonedid not answer his walkie-talkie.”

Brandon, confused, unhooked the walkie from his belt and pushed the buttons, only to hear silence. “Huh,” he said. “Dead.”

Autumn was afraid tomorrow’s newspaper headline would read, “Local Man Kills Boyfriend with Chainsaw.” “It’s my fault,” she said as she stood. “I sidetracked him when he got off the phone. I’m so sorry.” She stepped forward and grabbed Ben by the muddy sleeve. “Let’s get all this mud outside so you can get cleaned off.”

Outside, she peeled Ben’s grip from the chainsaw handle and set it aside. “Did you fall into a mud pit?” she asked before leading him by the arm down the steps away from the house.

He sighed. “Yeah, pretty much.” He pulled his mud-caked boots off and tossed them into the grass.

Autumn retrieved the garden hose and turned the water on him, making him scream. “Son of a bitch, that’s cold.”

Brandon strolled through the door out onto the porch, down the steps, and took the hose from Autumn with a smile, spraying Ben again. “Strip,” he said.

Autumn studied Brandon, still with his aim trained on Ben. “I can’t decide if you’re really brave or really stupid.”

“You’ll notice he waited until you got the chainsaw away from me,” Ben said.

Then Brandon sprayed him, again.

20.

The October sky spread a clear and cloudless night full of stars above Huntington Farms. Autumn, wrapped in a giant, fluffy sweater and curled in an Adirondack chair, watched Ben and Brandon get ready to christen the new pit with the first bonfire of the year. It wasn’t long before the fire roared and the smell of burning wood filled the air. She had to hand it to the guys, they knew how to create ambiance. Their friends arrived to roast hotdogs, make s’mores, and (of course) drink.

She hadn’t let anyone else in on the secret growing in her body. The tiny little secret that made her exhausted and nauseated all the time. Right now, she planned to stay busy—she would deal with it by not dealing with it. Brandon had put a bottle of prenatal vitamins on her desk and made her take at least one a day. Everyone else chalked up her peculiar, mopey behavior to missing Daniel. That was part of it, if she were honest. She was having his baby and he didn’t even know; she didn’t know what to do. Between that and her brother’s lackluster spirit, there was certainly enough sulking for one family. Earlier that week, she’d found herself in the local outdoor store with Jason being evaluated for her first bow. If it helped him, she’d fight through her mess and let him teach her to shoot a bow until her arms fell off.

Rebecca came over and plopped hard onto the Adirondack chair next to her. “Hey, haven’t seen you in a while,” she said.

Autumn nodded. “Yeah, I know,” she said with a smile. “Trying to keep these two on schedule is a lot of work. I’m just exhausted.”

“And missing Dan?” she asked.

She nodded again, noticing Rebecca’s eyes were slightly puffy. “Everything alright with you?” Autumn asked.

“Yeah, maybe.” She shrugged before pausing. “Hell, I don’t know.” She leaned back, her long dark hair falling away from her face and letting her exasperation show.

“Kyle?” Autumn ventured a guess.

Rebecca nodded without looking at Autumn. “Just between you and me,” she began, “he’s become distant recently.”

Rebecca was friends with Hannah and the two of them were close, but Autumn hadn’t been as close to Rebecca. She was merely the friend of a friend in this situation. She didn’t know what sort of advice to hand out, or if she even should. Let’s face it, her college boyfriend had turned out to be a lunatic, and her current boyfriend was about as distant as a man could get. And she was currently knocked up. So what did she know? “Have you tried talking to him about it?”

“No.” She took a long drink from her cup.

“Maybe you should,” she said. “Not that I know a whole lot about successful relationships, I don’t even know where my guy is.”

“Yeah, but that’s different,” Rebecca said. “He’s only gone because of duty. Otherwise, he’d be here. He was so obviously in love with you, and he never even bothered to hide it. Always so attentive to you, so romantic. He kissed your hand every chance he got,” she said with a sigh.

The phrase “so obviously in love” rattled in Autumn’s skull.Was she the only one who didn’t know until the moment he told her?She sighed. “Look, you have to remember, we were only together, like, four months. The whole time we knew he would leave at a moment’s notice. It was literally living in the present.” Autumn looked at Rebecca. “So don’t compare that to a long-term relationship. But, if you think something is wrong, you need to talk to him about it.”

She nodded. “It’s not over between you two, is it?”

“He said he’d come back.”

Rebecca grinned. “He’ll be back, then.”

Autumn looked around at the usual group gathered around the bonfire. “Where is he, anyway?”

Rebecca lost her grin as she huffed. “He had to work late, apparently.”

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