“Right, great.” Caitlin drove through the intersection, both guilty and relieved. She’d have to beg Lakshmi’s forgiveness for shaming her, but at least now she knew the truth. “Wait, where are we?”

“Near Bloomington South High.” Branford pointed past the intersection. “You want to keep going straight. It’s only another mile.”

Caitlin glanced back at a street sign. “Is this Tapp Road?”

“Yeah, Winslow turns into Tapp at Walnut. I don’t know why.”

Caitlin tightened her grip on the wheel.

“Are you okay?”

She realized Branford was watching her and fixed her eyes on the road. “Just got kind of queasy.”

The structure loomed in her peripheral vision. Set far back from the road on the passenger side, the long, three-story, sheet-metal shed still stood. She forced herself to remember Lake Lemon, the chill of the water, the light of the sun above.

Branford’s voice brought her back. “Take the next left.”

She turned south onto a dirt road and checked her rearview mirror. She’d passed her past by half a mile.

Branford pointed to a solitary duplex on an acre of grass surrounded by cornfields. “That’s me.”

“Why the hell does a charismatic, business-owning young man like yourself live way out in the sticks? I know there’s no money in teaching, but I’ve never heard of pizza failing in a college town.”

Branford laughed. “It might not look like much right now—”

“It looks like corn.”

“—well, there’s land under all that corn. In five years, this will all be housing subdivisions—and I’m sitting on twenty-two acres.”

“Definitely the smartest actor I’ve ever met,” Caitlin said, pulling onto his asphalt driveway. She parked between the house and its detached garage.

Branford didn’t reach for his door handle. “I know I never said ‘off the record’ or anything, but I’d love to stay out of the whole mess.”

“No reason to bring it up. I’m working this all on my own,” Caitlin said, conscious of the many smoldering bridges she’d left in town.

“Well, riding with you saved me an hour. How can I repay you?”

“No need.” Caitlin pressed the trunk button and got out.

Branford met her at the tailgate to retrieve his bike. “I insist. Any chance you like pizza?”

Caitlin shut the trunk. “Some might say too much.”

“I’ve got a stack of free pizza coupons in the kitchen. Can you wait like two minutes? I’ll hook you up.” He pulled his house keys out of his backpack. “That is, unless you have some hot date you need to run to?”

Caitlin’s only plan was to head back to Mary’s guesthouse. A free meal wouldn’t hurt anything. “Lakshmi says your pizza is pretty good.”

“Liar. Lakshmi says my pizza’s the best. Don’t go anywhere.”

Caitlin watched him jog the bike to the house’s kitchen door and slip inside.