For a month, he thought. Then he’d be packing up for parts unknown. For a moment he’d thought maybe he’d apply to teach in the valley, but the chance of finding a job in a small district wouldn’t be good. And roofing houses all day, every day, didn’t appeal to him. It was time he found a place where he could build a new life. He’d traveled the world. He’d lived adventure. Now he wanted peace. Honey Creek had almost felt like home.

If she’d agreed to be his girlfriend, he might have tried to make something work, but she didn’t want that, so he was going to have to move on. He wanted more and she wanted to stay just friends. If he stayed, he had a feeling she’d break his heart.

“You want to go to the attic and look at the stars?” She opened the secret panel they’d found.

Ketch knew he needed to get some sleep. He needed to keep his mind on the bomb threat. On the governor coming. But he followed her up the tiny stairs anyway, to the third floor where windows were slanted to let in the sky.

They lay down on the quilted pillow almost the size of a mattress. His legs hung off from the knees down but he didn’t mind. Tuesday was beside him.

Ketch had always faced any problem straight on, and he faced it now. “Kid, you willing to tell me why you don’t want to be my girlfriend?”

“No,” she answered.

He waited for more of an answer, but none came. The night sky was so beautiful they seemed to just drift among the stars for a while.

Finally he tried again. “I sorta thought we were getting along fine. Friends, you know, maybe heading to a little more than friends. Is there something about me that bothers you?”

“No,” she answered as she pulled his arm over a few inches so she could use it as a pillow. “You’re great.”

Ketch knew he should drop the subject, but this time he couldn’t. She was too important to him. “Then why don’t you like me?”

She laughed. “I do like you.”

“Tell me the truth, Tuesday.”

She rose on her elbow. “All right, but it’s not something I’m proud of, and the person I was is not the person I want to be.”

She stared up at the stars, then added, “When I was fifteen, after Grannie Eva died, I was so alone. There were days that no one talked to me, or even said hello.