Max crossed the road and took the steps two at a time to join Hannah on the porch. “I’m sorry about the dogs. I couldn’t sleep. I needed to talk to you. I thought I could sneak over quietly.”

“And when you got to the house, what? You think you’d have made it upstairs without waking Amelia and Grace?”

“I was willing to take my chances.”

Jose turned and disappeared with the dogs.

Hannah took Max’s hands. “No harm’s been done. I’m glad you’re here. Come on upstairs.”

They lay on Hannah’s bed, her head on his chest, and talked for hours.

“I think I’ve recovered from the shock, but I’ve got this feeling that my son hasn’t learned much from his experiences or travels,” Max said.

“Why do you say that? What did Zachary say or do?”

“It’s not what he said or did. It was his face, when we told him. Didn’t you notice?” Max shifted and stuffed a pillow under his head.

“He looked as if you’d threatened to shove him into a pit of snakes,” Hannah said. “What’s the right word for that, ‘aghast’?”

“Exactly.”

“Hearing about us must have been as much of a shock to him as his arriving back here was to you, don’t you think?” Hannah stroked Max’s cheek.

“He’s a grown man. Things change. He’ll have to adjust.”

“And you’ll be patient, and give him time, and not push him, right?”

Max sighed, reached for her hand, and kissed her palm. “You’ll put a muzzle on me if I don’t.”

The next morning, at Max’s invitation, he and his son climbed the hill behind the dairy barn. When was it, Max wondered, that Zachary had stopped tagging along with him on his daily walks? Had he been eight or nine years old when he pleaded excessive homework?

Bella had said, “Let the boy alone, Max. Some people don’t like climbing the same hill every day.”

“I can take another route,” Max had replied.

“Just let him know he’s welcome to come with you, and let it go at that,” she suggested, and Max had heeded her counsel. Zachary had never walked with him again, until today.

Max slowed his pace. His son was winded, breathing hard from exertion. “Let’s sit a bit on those boulders.” Max pointed to a cluster of gray granite bruising the green hillside.

Max’s eyes traveled beyond the homes on Cove Road to the layers of hills rising one above the other in the morning mist. This was his favorite view, the reason he climbed the hill.

Zachary focused on dislodging, with a stick, some object stuck to the sole of one shoe.

“Phew!” He grimaced and dug a packet of antiseptic wipes from his back pocket, drew one out, and cleaned his hands. “Cow dung everywhere, same as ever.”