“So, Ava, there was me thinking you were a sloth.” He fell in beside his little sister.

“I was shocked, I’m not gonna lie.” Charlie moved in on her right.

“I like running, it clears your head.”

“It does,” Dylan agreed.

The Howards then did something he didn’t think they’d ever done before in their lives: they spent the next twenty minutes together in peaceful solitude. No one spoke, they simply ran, and Dylan had to say having his sisters with him, no matter how briefly, was really something.

Whatever these changes inside him were, and why he was experiencing them he didn’t know, for now he wanted this closeness with his family. Wanted to try and forge some kind of relationship with the two women at his side.

Fall was producing some awesome scenery. The maples and ash trees were spectacular. Dylan knew there were plenty of others, he just didn’t know their names.

“It’s pretty special.” Charlie looked around. “I don’t know how I let myself forget this.”

“Me too,” Dylan agreed. “The air is so clear and fresh.”

“You’re not breaking into song anytime soon are you?” Ava mocked them.

Dylan grabbed her and dug his fingers into her side. She squirmed like she’d used to. Her laughter was sweet and genuine and it filled his chest.

“Heard how you helped Piper bring that little girl here. Good work.”

The man who spoke was in his fifties, was Dylan’s guess. Tall and lean, he was just in front of the Howards.

“Thanks.”

“How’s your dad?”

They’d been running about twenty minutes when the questions started, almost like the rest of the runners had been given the okay by Mr. Goldhirsh now the Howard kids had settled in.

“He’ll be home soon, thank you for asking,” Charlie said to a gray-haired woman with a face that looked like a worn leather boot. Too much sun time was Dylan’s guess.

“Good. Helps having his children around.”

“Hear your mom’s unwell. Try green tea and honey, can help to soothe the cramps.”

Ten minutes later they’d circled back and were heading into the main street of Ryker, and in that time had been given recipes for healing tonics and promises of baking.

“Anyone take notes?” Dylan said when they’d stopped. The pace hadn’t been too strenuous, but the questions had been constant.

“What the hell was that about?” Charlie whispered, still looking fresh.

Ava was bent double, sucking in lungfuls of air. Dylan placed a hand on her back.

“You okay there?”

She lifted a hand but said nothing.