“Hey,” Cal said without turning around. “I heard you about ten minutes ago. Always know it’s you when it sounds like a herd of elephants is tramping through the woods. You would make a crap spy.”

“Yeah, well, spy’s never been high on my career list.” I lowered myself down next to him, shoving my sleeves up and swiping a hand across the back of my sweaty neck. “How long you been out here?”

Cal shrugged. “Not too long.” He looked as terrible as I felt, dark smudges under his eyes and his eyelids puffy from recent tears I knew he’d deny shedding. “I needed a day where no one was looking at me, waiting for me to crack, you know?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I know.”

Cal adjusted his hold on the rod, reeled in the line a little. The sunlight made his hair glow gold, his eyelashes making hazy shadows on his cheeks. “Land told me about Hallie and her mom,” he said.

I sighed, tipped my face up to the sun and let it paint patterns on my closed eyelids. It felt like warm thumbs pressing against my skin, and the sensation brought the sting of tears. I opened my eyes and turned my face away. “What? Are you and Land tag-teaming me now?” I asked. “I’m guessing you’re playing good cop because God knows Land always plays the bad one.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” I mumbled.

Cal laid a hand on my arm, tugging slightly until I turned and looked at him. “I’m not trying to ambush you or tag-team you or whatever. I was worried when Land told me. You can’t go off half-cocked, Evie, confronting everyone who—”

I jerked my arm away from him. “I already got the lecture, but thanks.”

“Jesus, would you listen to me for one goddamn second? I’m not going to lecture you. I’m trying to apologize.”

That stopped me. “For what?”

Cal ran a hand through his hair. “For not telling you about Izzy. I promised Junie I wouldn’t.” He raised his hand in my direction when I opened my mouth to speak. “But I would have, eventually. I wanted to figure out exactly what was going on first. And help Junie see that it would be better if you knew. And Izzy’s parents, too.”

I slumped, all the fight gone out of me. I liked it better when anger was sluicing through my blood. Rage blotted out everything else. “I thought Junie told me everything. Why would she want to keep that a secret from me?”

Cal paused, and I knew he was doing that thing where he weighed how much to say. Cal was always careful that way, wanting to make sure he got the words just right before he released them. He reached over and tapped the ball of my shoulder with one finger. “You have kind of a big chip right here when it comes to the Logans. Junie wasn’t blind to it, you know. She probably didn’t want to give you any reason to cut off her friendship with Izzy.”