Suwallia glanced at Ford hesitantly, then back to Marty. “Listen, we have archery team tryouts right after the school year starts. You should come try out. You’d make it for sure.”

“I…I’m not really much into sports.”

Suwallia arched a brow. “This isn’t like that. We shoot as a team, sure. But you’re competing individually too. I’m team captain. You should come. Really.”

“Yeah, okay. Yeah. Thanks.”

“Good. I hope the rest of your summer is fun.” Suwallia waved and went back to her line.

Ford chuckled. “Ha. She’s cute.”

Marty stared. “What?”

Ford leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Ace doesn’t mean no romance, does it?”

“I guess sometimes it does, but I…I don’t know about me. For sure.”

“So there you go. Be sure you make it to the team tryouts.” Ford laughed again, and Marty shot a glance over to the adjacent line as everyone jostled forward. Suwallia turned, saw them, and smiled.

Maybe you just haven’t found your team yet, Marty.

Their dad was a soldier, and maybe all his rules didn’t apply to them all the time, but he still got an awful lot right. Archery. Yeah. They could do that.

Chapter Seventeen

Chase still hadn’t returned when Lily got up the next morning. By now she’d come to recognize that long callouts happened frequently, but that didn’t make the waiting any easier. Having no idea where Chase was and only the vaguest picture of what she might be doing didn’t help either. She wasn’t prone to catastrophic thinking—at least she never used to be—but then anxiety was a foreign emotion too until the pandemic, when uncertainty and apprehension became the order of the day. She’d started to reprogram while she’d been at camp, finding the steadiness that had always come naturally to her. Still, on the third morning with no sign of Chase’s Jeep and no word from her—at least no word to her—Lily was done with waiting.

“Have you seen Sarah?” she asked Alisha, who was curled up in her usual spot on the sofa in the great room with her morning coffee.

“Mmm,” Alisha said. “She walked through a few minutes ago with coffee. Went out the front, so I don’t think she’s in her office.”

“Thanks,” Lily said and hurried to get coffee before starting her search. Besides, she had a pretty good idea where she’d find her.

“Muffins are ready,” Clara called when Lily walked into the kitchen. “Lemon poppyseed.”

“Can I take two?” Lily detoured to the big stainless steel counter and the cooling racks of muffins.

Clara laughed. “Honey, you can take as many as you want.”