“So now what?” Spud asked.

“I can start spending more time here… with you and Pip. I’ll put on a good show about my son being taken away by his mother, make sure that people see that I’m upset about it. And then it’s just a waiting game. In time, I’ll move out of Minnesota because there’s nothing to keep me here. You see? Then you’re free to go back to your life. It’s working just like I told you it would.”

“So when you say you’ll be spending more time here…”

“Starting tonight—after my shift. I have a cot in the truck. We’ll move your bed into Pip’s room for me, and you can have the cot.”

“I get the cot?”

Reed’s smile fell away. “Which one of us has to work every day?”

He stared at Spud until Spud nodded, although to himself Spud thought, You could have just as easily brought a bed.

They unloaded the Tahoe of groceries, clothes for Reed, and a box of magazines: sports magazines, hunting magazines, but nothing for a child. Spud wanted to throw the magazines at Reed. Had he forgotten that he had a son there at the shack? Where were the children’s books? The games? Did Reed think his six-year-old son cared who the Vikings traded or what power of rifle worked best for hunting deer?

But then Spud thought about his own father. Yeah, they read books and played games together, but those weren’t the moments he cherished. The memories that held their color over the many years were the times they just sat together and talked, moments of respite away from his mother, when they were Spike and Spud, the nicknames they used when they were alone.

Spud hoped that Reed had plans to take his son for a walk in the woods, or cook a meal with him. But Spud’s hopes were short-lived.

Reed spent five hours at the shack that day, four of them sitting in the living room reading magazines. Pip stayed in his room for most of that time. When he came out for lunch, he sat beside Spud, a move that caused Reed’s nostrils to flare. And when Pip accidentally spilled a glass of milk, Reed stood, went to the sink, picked up a washrag, and tossed it to the table.

“Clean it up,” he said to Pip.

Pip wiped up the milk and Spud took the rag back to the sink, Reed glaring at him the whole way.

After Pip went back to his room, Reed motioned for Spud to join him on the porch. “I know you think you’re helping things, but when I tell my son to do something, I do it for a reason.” Reed smiled at Spud, but the smile seemed forced. “He’s been spoiled by his mother ever since he was born, taught that life is all candy and marshmallows. I have to break him of that softness. I need to make Pip strong, and having him do for himself sometimes is part of the process. So I need you to back off a bit. You understand, right?”