“I have him!” a man said. “Let him go!”
Three men had jumped into the marsh. Another slid into the water and passed River up to the people standing at the concrete ledge. His body was completely limp, his face almost blue and streaked with blood.
He looked dead. She hadn’t gotten him out in time.
The men in the water were helping her get out when someone shouted, “He’s not breathing! Does anyone know CPR?”
A man and woman pushed through a large crowd. They knelt on either side of River. The man listened to River’s chest. He said there was a heartbeat. Raven gasped a sob of relief. But when the woman opened River’s slack mouth and breathed into it, nothing happened. He didn’t wake up. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe.
Beyond the cluster of cars and horrified faces, the prairie and water were impossibly beautiful. A flock of white egrets slowly flapped across pink clouds and blue sky.
Why had the spirits of that powerful piece of earth done this to one of their own?
Please let him live. Come to him now and make him breathe.
She willed the spirits to help him, but he did not breathe.
8
ELLIS
Jasper didn’t want dinner. He just sulked in the guesthouse, eating snacks and watching TV. He was angry that his brother had taken the car while he was in the shower.
Ellis was surprised when she discovered Raven had gone with River. They hadn’t left a note, and River wasn’t answering Jasper’s texts. As the sun sank lower, Ellis worried. But Jasper was sure they’d just gone to dinner without telling them. He said it was the kind of selfish thing River always did.
What was wrong with her children?
She was what was wrong with them. Her mother was what was wrong with them. And her father, who’d been so hotheaded he’d gotten himself killed over an argument. Her parents had wanted a baby when they clearly couldn’t be responsible for another human being.
Some people shouldn’t have children. Ellis had never thought she should or would. Then Jonah blew into her life and tossed up her plans for the future like so many dead leaves.
Quercus put his paws in her lap and licked her chin. He was the sweetest and most intuitive of the three dogs she’d had. Maybe because Keith had chosen him.
She ruffled his thick, furry mane. “You miss him, don’t you?”
Seeing he had her attention, he ran for his ball. She rarely played with him. Keith had always done that. She got out of the rocking chair and threw the ball into the trees. Quercus fetched it. She threw again. On the fourth throw, the ball got stuck high in the spiky trunk of a cabbage palm. Quercus stared at it longingly.
Keith would get a ladder and bring the ball down, but she was too wiped to do that.
She went inside to get her phone and returned to her rocking chair. One was hers, the other Keith’s.
She pressed his number. She didn’t know why or what she would say. Just like that night in Ohio after she’d buried her phone and family pictures in the Wild Wood river.
“Hey there,” he said when he picked up.
“Hey,” she said.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“The dog’s ball is stuck up in a tree. Way up.” It was a really asinine thing to say.
“That’s too bad.”
“Yeah.”
An awful silence. She was afraid he’d say goodbye and that silence would go on forever.
“I don’t think that’s why you called,” he said.
“It’s not.”
“Why did you?”
“I miss you. I’m wondering if you’ll ever forgive me.”
“I have. Sort of.”
“You have?”
“Sort of. I can see why you didn’t tell me about your kids. Feeling responsible for your child’s abduction must be about as bad as it gets for a parent. Now I understand why you lived in campgrounds when I first met you. You were suffering from so much more than a divorce.”
After a pause, he said, “But it’s still tough for me, Ellis. I keep asking myself why you didn’t trust me. Even when I trusted you enough to ask you to marry me and have our baby.”
Tears dripped down her cheeks.
“Do you see how much that would hurt?” he asked.
“Yes.”
After a silence, he said, “You’re crying.”
She tried to say yes, but it came out as a sob.
“Is everything okay over there?”
“Something happened today.”
“What?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.”
“There was a man who was like my father when I was little. He came here today.”
“What happened?”
“I found out the truth about some things I’d never understood.”
He waited, but she didn’t know what more to say.
“The truth hurt?” he asked.
“More than I’d have thought after all these years.”
“But aren’t you glad you know?”
She was glad she knew who her father was, but discovering Zane hadn’t really loved her or missed her still hurt.
“I think some truths are better left unsaid,” she said.
“Not between people who truly care about each other,” he said.
Ellis had cared; Zane hadn’t. The love had been one sided. He hadn’t cared enough to tell her about her father. Or even to say goodbye when he left. There had been no truth between them, and that hurt much more than the truths Zane had divulged.
She realized then why she’d called him.
“I love you, Keith.”
There was no sound, but somehow she knew he was crying.
“Any chance you’d come over? I want to tell you about what happened today.”
“This is good, Ellis.”
“What is?”
“That you want to share the pain.”
“I’ve got quite a bit, if you can stand it.”
“I could have handled it, you know. All of it.”
“I know.”
“I’ll be over in twenty minutes.”
“Where are you?”
“I’ve been staying in Ben’s guest room.”
Ben was another park ranger who lived in nearby Ocala.
“You’d better hurry if you want to see the sunset. It looks like it’ll be good.”
“On my way.”
He arrived before the sun went down. He hadn’t yet closed his car door when they sank into each other’s arms. Quercus
