In the end, he decided to admit what he’d done and apologize to the Jensens. Whatever Trip had said to the prosecutor, the truth was that Will had taken part in the destruction. None of his excuses would change the fact that a family’s house had been destroyed. And so he simply told them what he’d done and asked for their forgiveness. I didn’t mean to hurt you, he said, but I know that I did. When he was done, he printed it in the office behind the farm shop, signed his name, and placed it in an envelope. He felt an odd mix of resignation and relief. It would be up to the Jensens what they did with the letter, but the important thing was that he’d written it.

His mother was sitting in the kitchen when he went to grab his keys, and she asked him where he was going.

“There’s something that I need to do,” Will said. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. About figuring out what I need to do to live with myself.” He slipped the letter into his back pocket and headed out to the driveway. She stood at the door and watched him go. Before he got into the truck, he turned back to her. “What did Dom Finch want yesterday?” he asked.

His mother’s face clouded a bit. “He wants to help,” she said. “I think . . . I think things might work out.” It didn’t really sound like she believed it. “Anyway, it’s a way forward, for all of us. Nothing is free, right? The only question is, is the thing you want worth the price you have to pay?”

46

Rosie sat at a table at the back of her dad’s restaurant, her laptop open in front of her. Her screen had gone blank several minutes earlier, but she was still staring at it as she methodically nibbled away at what was left of her fingernails. She glanced over at her father, who was behind the counter dealing with a busy lunch crowd. He met her eyes, and then quickly looked away.

She should have been working the lunch shift. Her plan for the summer had been to work as many hours as she could to save up spending money for college in the fall. But after the police called her father in to inform him about what they termed the relationship between her and Jake Tillman, her father had forbidden her from working in the front of the house. He seemed to think that he was to blame for what happened because he had had her work behind the counter. Rosie, who couldn’t figure out how to tell him that nothing had actually happened, found it difficult to argue. In fact, she was finding it difficult to talk to her father at all, and he seemed to feel the same way.