“Yes,” Bell says, barreling on toward the kitchen.

Asher hasn’t played in years, but he has not missed his fingers on the keys until this very moment. Once upon a time he could not go a day without playing for an hour or so. Once he had sat at a piano like this and felt God in his fingers, had felt the music washing out of him, and in those times everything else floated away and he became the music and he believed, he believed, he believed.

“You play, too?” Bell asks as she unloads the groceries.

“Not anymore,” Asher answers.

“I can finish here. You go on and get settled,” she says, suddenly radiant in the brightness of the yellow kitchen.

“I think we’ll turn in early tonight,” Asher says.

“Not gonna eat with us? You’ll miss a good meal.”

“I appreciate the offer,” he says, already backing toward the door. It’s going to be hard to not be social at this place. But he has too much to worry about. “I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”

As he slips out the door and onto the porch he looks back just in time to see her watching him on his way out.

Most everything in the cottage is wicker: couch, love seat, coffee table, bed headboards.

A small bathroom with a frosted window, a bedroom for Asher and a smaller one for Justin. No dining room, but an old Formica eating table in the big kitchen so much like the one he grew up with.

Asher is pleased by how little they possess. There is a freedom in not having anything. They have every single thing they need and not one bit more, and that’s how Asher has always wanted to live, really.

The porch runs the entire length of the house’s front side. A wall of lattice divides it in two so they have their own side and the woman has hers. Evona. Nobody could forget a name like that. There is plenty of cushioned wicker furniture and a couple of wooden rockers and a swing, a set of chimes that ring against one another in the slight breeze coming in off the Atlantic.

Asher watches the light and shadows move down the porch floor as darkness fully overtakes the island. All is quiet here, no sound other than the chimes and the brush of palm fronds, the occasional murmur of Justin inside as he talks to Shady. This has been the longest day of Asher’s life, but maybe the best. There had been a time when he would have thought this serendipity happened because God was on his side. Now he sees the arrogance of that thought.