She twisted her hands in front of her. “I’ll pay. You have my word.”

“Yeah, well, Ted had that, too, and it didn’t turn out to be worth much.”

She cringed. “I’ll put it in writing.”

“Too bad your fiancé didn’t think of that.” With a scowl, he snapped the saddlebags closed.

ALTHOUGH PANDA DIDN’T TAKE HER up on the offer, he also didn’t ride off without her, which she took as a positive sign. She needed food, but more than that, she wanted comfortable shoes and a change of clothes. “Would you go back?” she shouted in Panda’s ear as he buzzed past a Walmart. “I’d like to get some things.”

Either she hadn’t spoken loud enough or he didn’t hear her because he didn’t stop.

As they rode, she let her mind drift and found herself remembering the day Mat Jorik had shown up at that ratty rental house in Harrisburg where she’d been hiding out with her baby sister during those terrible weeks after their mother’s death. He’d loomed at the front door, angry and impatient. She had a dead mother and a year-old baby sister to protect, so even though she’d been fourteen and scared to death, she didn’t let him see it.

“We got nothing to talk about,” she’d said after he’d bullied his way inside.

“Cut the crap … Unless you shoot straight with me, Child and Family Services will be here to pick you up in an hour.”

For six weeks, she’d used all the resources a fourteen-year-old could muster to keep the authorities from finding out she was the only one caring for the baby she’d called Button, the baby who’d grown up to be Tracy. “We don’t need anybody taking care of us!” she’d shouted. “We’re doing great by ourselves. Why don’t you mind your own damn business?”

But he hadn’t minded his business, and before long, he, Lucy, and Button were on the road, where they’d met up with Nealy and gone on a cross-country trip in Mabel, the beat-up Winnebago that still sat on her parents’ property in Virginia because none of them could bear getting rid of her. Mat was the only father she had ever known, and she couldn’t have found a better one. Or a better husband for Nealy, a love match Lucy’d had more than a small hand in bringing about. She’d been so courageous in those days. So fearless. She’d lost that part of herself so gradually she’d barely been aware of the change.