So why didn’t it feel like that? Of course it was home. I’d lived in Southern California all my life. My family was there. It was our destination, and we’d arrive in less than twenty-four hours if all went well. We should feel victorious. Sure, there were many unknowns, and a vast number of challenges before us. But we’d made it. We’d started out on foot two thousand miles ago and we were almost home! And all I could feel was sadness and fear. “Home,” I finally repeated, turning to him. His eyes were milky in the low light of the moon, and I could only make out the shadowy lines of his profile. “We did it.”

He reached over and grasped my hand. “We did,” he said. “Almost.”

Almost. Such a big word in a time like this. I craved more. Certainty. Predictability. “What do you think it’s going to be like there?”

“I’d imagine it’s going to be like it is here. Los Angeles is my worry.”

“Los Angeles. I thought we were going directly to my parents?”

“We are.” He paused. “I’m going to bring you to them, and then I’m going to go to Los Angeles and check on my uncle.” He was quiet again for a moment, and a pain shot through my stomach. “He was there for me when I needed him, even when I didn’t deserve it. I owe him. He might be in trouble, and I owe him.”

He owed him. To his mind, Tuck owed a lot of people. That had even been his motivation for helping me—and Charlie—get home initially. He’d owed it to my parents. It was his driving force. Repaying debts, making amends. And I wanted to be angry and resentful at him for that, but I couldn’t. He was honorable and good. But I was deeply worried that his honor meant more to him than I did. “If your uncle needs somewhere to stay, you know, out of the city…bring him to my parents.”

“Your parents might just have enough to get by—”

“Tuck.” I squeezed his hand. “We’ll make room for your uncle. And you too. You know that.” And though I meant it, I also hoped that if Tuck’s uncle was there at our farm, it would give Tuck even more reason to stay.

Pitiful, Emily. Desperately trying to give Tuck a reason to stay, other than just…you.

“I’ve also been thinking about my dad,” Tuck said somewhat haltingly. “We’ve been estranged for so many years but…he’s still the man who raised me.”