“And what does he think I’m going to do while he goofs around?” Katie asked.

“Anything you want. We have a new school and before it opens for business in the fall, there’s a summer program. It’s real flexible, like a day camp—you don’t have to commit to taking the boys every day, but it would give them playmates and give you a little freedom, something you haven’t had much of since they were born.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

“Well, wait till you see the darling little cabin Conner found for you—you’ll think you’re on vacation. Act like it!”

The next morning dawned bright and clear, the morning air crisp. She and Conner loaded up the luggage she’d pulled out the night before and she followed him out of town, down a long tree-lined road, then turned onto a drive at a mailbox. And there, sitting in the clearing with the sunlight streaking through the tree branches, sat the most adorable little A-frame cabin with a wide porch. There were hanging pots full of red geraniums and white Adirondack chairs on the porch.

She slowly got out of the SUV and approached it in wonder. There were flowering shrubs all around, lush ferns, a variety of tall pines, even a few sequoias. The boys were instantly out of the car, racing around the little cabin, while Katie stood transfixed. The A-frame seemed to be contained in a spotlight of sunshine. It looked like an enchanted cabin.

“Boys!” Conner shouted. “Do not go in the woods! Stay near the house! They’re not going to listen, are they?”

“Conner,” she said on a breath. “How did you find this place?”

“It’s Jack’s—he owns the bar in town. Now listen—see these shrubs that surround the place? Lilac and hydrangea and a bunch of stuff, but you also have blackberries, which you can pick and eat when they’re ripe, according to Jack, but remember that bear also happen to like them…”

Her eyes widened. “Boys! Come here! Right now!”

“We’ll go over the bear rules,” Conner said. “You’ll also have deer from time to time, and you want to learn those rules, too, because if you have bucks in rut, you really don’t want to be involved. Does and fawns, not a big worry—they’ll probably just run off if you happen upon them, but a mating buck might take the interference personally, if you get my drift.”

“What man wouldn’t?” she muttered. “How long do you give the boys before they’re lost in the woods?”

“You’re going to have to stay on top of that. Listen, if you don’t feel comfortable out here…”

“So far, I love it. Can we check out the inside?”

“It’s not locked. Help yourself. According to Jack, this place has quite a history—his wife lived here before they got married and moved into a larger house. Their first child was born here. Then others lived here—the most recent being the town doctor. We just finished his house and got him moved. We barely put up fresh paint in here…”

She stopped and turned to look up at her brother before she reached the porch. “Conner, I love it. I love Leslie. I think I’m going to love the town—but you do understand, I have to find the boys something permanent with the right schools, sports, all that…”

“I know. I know. But can you just get your bearings? Take at least a few weeks to get to know the area?”

She could do that. After Disney World and a long coast-to-coast move, she was more than ready to take a break. She had to get her life in order, get the boys set up, find a job that she really saw herself staying in for a long time. The boys would be starting first grade in the fall. She’d love to be nested by then. Here? Nearby?

The inside of the cabin was as perfect for her as the outside had been—two bedrooms separated by a bath downstairs, a loft upstairs and the rest of the downstairs space was a living room/kitchen just the right size for a single mom and two little boys. “There seems to be one important item missing,” she said to her brother. “Where’s the TV?”

“I guess it went with the doc to his new house. But Jack said you have satellite out here, so we’ll fix you up. We’ll make a run to a bigger town on the weekend, get a TV.”

“It’s either that or take them off Xbox and Wii cold-turkey, and I might not be up to that.”

“What did we have as kids?” Conner asked. “Did we have all this electronic stuff?”

“Atari and Nintendo,” she told him. “And immediately following that, I think we went to work in the store. By the way, is there a hardware store around here?”

“On the coast, Fortuna and Eureka. And that has inspired some thought.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been thinking this place could use one. Maybe somewhere between here and the closer small towns, like Grace Valley, Clear River. Paul could use one—he’s getting most of his stuff shipped in from a wholesaler. It wouldn’t be like the last store—there aren’t enough custom jobs around here to support it, but folks around here have to drive a long way for nails and paint.”

She put her fingers on her temples. “Okay, don’t give me too much to think about yet,” she said. “Just help me get my stuff inside and go to work unpacking. I’ll get settled and meet you in town for dinner.”

While Conner brought in the boxes she had shipped, she wrangled the suitcases. She found someone had put staples in the refrigerator and cupboard—milk, cereal, bread, lunch meat, eggs. “Les,” Conner said. “She thinks of everything.”

Conner went over a few details—no food or garbage left outside to tempt bears, there was bear repellant in the high cupboard above the microwave and a fire extinguisher under the sink. If you leave a pie cooling in the window sill, don’t count on it to be there later. And no wandering in the woods—it was way too easy to get lost if you didn’t know your way.

“This bear thing sounds serious,” Katie said.

“Jack said he heard Doc Michaels saw one bear, one time in two years. And Jack has seen more than that at his house. They’re all over the place, and mostly run off at the sight of a human, but no point in taking chances. You’ll have to talk to the boys about that, supervise if they’re playing outside and get them inside if you see one.”

“How many people have been attacked?” she asked.

“Jack said in the eight years he’s been here, zero. But still, keep an eye out.”

When you travel with only the essentials, it doesn’t take long to settle in. Her keepsakes of Charlie’s medals and their family pictures went in the trunk that served as a coffee table—the boys liked to look at them sometimes. Clothes went in drawers and closets and toys in the loft. The boys wanted Xbox hooked up immediately, though they seemed not to notice there was no TV until she pointed that out. So after lunch, the three of them threw a ball for a while in the clearing, then they kicked a soccer ball for a while, then the boys had a little quiet time with their videos and the portable DVD player.

And Katie had her own respite on the porch. It was miraculous, being surrounded by nothing but nature. The sounds of the forest—a variety of birds, rustling, the occasional caw or quack—lulled her and she let her eyes close. No growling, she observed.

Burlington had been so much quieter than Sacramento, but this—this was almost the wilderness. Having been raised in a city, Katie had no idea why the pristine and barely populated parts of the country held such appeal for her. She really hoped to take the boys to visit all those national wonders when they got a little older—Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Big Sur. Katie and Conner’s parents had taken them to Yosemite when they were young and she never wanted to leave. Conner had looked up the face of El Capitan at the climbers and nearly passed out. He could barely stand on a ladder, heights made him so woozy, but Katie wouldn’t mind learning rock climbing. The idea of scaling El Capitan had thrilled her. She had looked up that sheer rock at the climbers who spent the night in sleeping bags suspended from stakes pounded into the flat face of the rock and had envied them.

Even though she was a small girl, she was the athlete in the family and had planned a life of running a girls’ gym in a school, that’s what she’d studied. She had a degree in Phys Ed. Nothing could make her happier than going to work every day in a pair of shorts and sneakers with a whistle around her neck.

But she hadn’t done any of these things. Instead she’d buried both parents, finished college, helped run the store, married a Green Beret and had twin boys—kind of a full plate.

By four o’clock, not only was her little cabin in the woods in perfect order, her boys were in good moods because they’d had some downtime. She’d had some quiet herself and was giving serious thought to never buying a TV. Freshly showered and ready for dinner, she loaded the boys into the SUV and headed for her brother’s. Leslie wasn’t home from work yet, so Conner jumped in Katie’s car and they drove the two blocks to Jack’s. When she pulled up beside a neat little row of motorcycles she said, “Well, look at that, Conner. You’re going to meet our motorcycle gang.”

Three

It was a whole new scene at the bar now that Preacher knew Walt and his gang were in town. Walt planned on having every evening meal with Preacher and Preacher was clearly showing off. The cook was in the bar as opposed to the kitchen, which was not typical. “Tonight my best of show—stuffed trout. Trout’s fresh—at least what you’re getting is fresh. Me and Jack stood in the river this morning, reeling it in. Rice and cornbread stuffing, squash, onion and pepper side from Jilly Farms… You probably don’t know about Jilly Farms—she grows organic heirloom fruits and vegetables and her sister, a chef, cans a lot and makes up special sauces and bisques, which I’m willing to take off her hands—the flavor of these vegetables is beyond good.”

“Bring it on!” Walt said, causing his pals to laugh. “Can’t wait to hear about tomorrow night. What are the chances you’ll have some of that seafood bouillabaisse again while I’m in town?”

“Aw, sorry man—not unless lobster tail and scallops go on special at Costco. Otherwise it’s just too high dollar for this camp.”

“I’ll get it,” Walt said, with a fist on the bar. “How much do you need?”

Preacher looked startled. “If you’re serious, it takes a lot to make it right. A case of each, fresh not frozen. And ask how long it’s been on ice. Sniff it—I want you to smell the meat, not bottom of a boat or shipping crates. Can you do that?”

“I can do that,” Walt said. “This is an exceptional nose. I’ll make these old boys a map for their ride and head to Costco. If they don’t have what I need…”

“If they don’t have it fresh, go to the fish markets in Eureka—the closer to the marina the better.”

“Done!” Walt said. “You boys won’t mind too much, will you? You’ll get payback when you eat.”

“We’re good,” Dylan said with a laugh.

“How was today?” Jack asked. “You had sun.”

“Awesome. There are some back roads along the cliffs right on the ocean. Good ride. There are a million logging trucks out there. They take up the whole road and then blast their horn at us.”

“That’s just a friendly hello. Don’t you boys have loggers in Montana?”

“Our friends are mostly ranchers or loggers,” Lang said. “Cutting back on the logging a little these days, and we were growing dude ranches like clover for a while there, but when money gets tight, girly stuff like that tends to be in a decline, though there are still quite a few.”

“Easy,” Dylan said. “I think I’m a dude with a ranch.”

“You ranch, Dylan?” Jack asked.

“Depends on your perspective. I have chickens, some goats, a bull, six cows, two horses and a hand who’s been watching that property for years. He was old twenty years ago, so now he’s ancient. I don’t exactly—” He was about to say, “earn money,” but he was cut off when the door to the bar opened and a man, woman and set of five-year-old twins came in. He watched as she took them in, all smiles. Then she took the hand of the man she was with and led him to the bar, to Walt first.

“Conner, this is Walt, and he changed my tire the other day.”

Whoa boy, Dylan thought. This little girl cleaned up nice. She had the look of a drowned Chihuahua when he met her, but here she was all fluffed and buffed and sexy as hell. He grinned stupidly.

Walt turned on his stool and grasped the man’s hand. “Well, good to see you again. We met the last time I passed through. Yes, the miss here had herself an impressive flat. She was determined she was gonna change it if she could just get past the lugs.”

Conner laughed and shook his hand. “Katie can change a tire—but the lugs always give her trouble. To tell the truth, they give me trouble.”

“And, Conner,” she said, moving to stand beside Dylan. “This is Dylan. He also helped. I didn’t meet the others.”

Conner shook his hand, thanked him, and then Dylan introduced Lang and Stu. While Conner stood having conversation about the rides with Walt and the boys, Katie didn’t move away. Of course he was at one end of their foursome while Walt was at the other, but still. She was right there beside him.

“The husband?” he asked rather quietly.

“No,” she returned just as quietly, acting secretive, but she was mocking him. “The brother. Uncle Conner.”