They also never talked about the fact that the fields behind the house, with their acres of apple and cherry trees, no longer belonged to the O’Connor family. Their name was still on the gate, and his parents still ran the farm, but the land itself belonged to Finch Properties. Except for the house and an easement on the driveway, everything else had been sold. Even the eighty-year-old apple tree that Will’s great-grandfather had planted, and which still stood at the entrance to the fields, no longer fruiting but spreading and shady. The money had been used to pay Trip’s lawyer and his restitution, and Will’s school bills, and the rest put aside to lease back the property and invest in the business. His mother put it simply: “The terms were very generous.” And then she’d added, more defensively: “None of you were ever so sentimental about it when the land belonged to us.” And that was the last time they discussed it.

And it wasn’t just his family. Things also hadn’t been the same between him and Maddie. After she’d gotten out of the hospital, he’d hoped things would go back to the way they were, but they hadn’t. She rarely talked about the party, or the accident, but there was something about the way she would stare off into space in the middle of conversations that unsettled him. Her mind always seemed to be somewhere else. And soon she would be leaving town. A week after the police announced the assault case had ended in a plea deal, Maddie told him she’d been accepted to a fine arts program in San Francisco that started at the end of the month. “I have to get out of here,” she said. “I need to move on, and I can’t do that here.”

Will pushed off of his tube and dove under the water, cooling off. He flipped onto his back, like a river otter, and floated for a minute on the surface. Above him the sky was bright blue, but at the edge of his vision the southern horizon was dark and hazy. He paddled over to Trip’s kayak and pointed at the clouds.

“That looks like a thunderstorm,” he said. “Was it in the forecast?”

Trip followed his gaze. “I didn’t check,” he said. “Seems nice enough right now.”

Trip’s words didn’t reassure Will. “I don’t want to get caught on the water if there’s a storm,” he said. “We’ve had some crazy lightning this summer. Especially with all the girls here. You know they’ll freak out.”

Trip looked up at the clouds again and shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “It’ll hold. We’re going to have smooth sailing.” He winked at Will.