“—elen?” His voice sounded echoey, far off, like he was calling from the bottom of a well.

“I can barely hear you, Nate. Where are you calling from?”

“The house,” he said. “I wanted—”

He was gone again, his voice replaced by a crackle, a sizzling sound, like meat on a grill.

“Can you—” he said.

“What?” she asked. “I can’t hear you.”

“Because of you.”

“Nate?”

“Because of you.” It was a woman’s voice that came through loud and sure. A woman’s voice that sounded like glass being ground up in a blender. A jagged, grating sound.

Helen nearly swerved off the road. Heart pounding, she pulled over, turned on her blinkers.

“Hello?” she croaked out. “Who is this?”

She held her breath, afraid of what the voice might answer. The phone felt hot in her hand, like the circuits were overheating, might just burst into flames.

“Sorry, hon, you’re breaking up,” Nate said. “You there?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m here.”

Nate. Only Nate. Just a bad connection. She must have misheard.

“I was just calling to see if you could stop at the farm supply store on the way home and pick up some deer feed. Hello? Can you hear me?”

Deer feed. Of course that’s what he wanted.

For his elusive white doe.

He thinks you’re going crazy, and you think he is, too.

Stop it, she told herself.

No money for pizza or decent beer or wine, but plenty of money to feed the wildlife.

She hated thinking of him like this, feeling bitter and resentful. She took a breath. Remembered how just last night he’d cooked an amazing dinner—coconut curry soup with sweet potato biscuits—then made her close her eyes before he pulled out his surprise dessert, a cute little saltbox house made from graham crackers and frosting that looked nearly identical to theirs. His way of apologizing for freaking out about the bricks, though he didn’t say it out loud.

“Yeah, Nate, I hear you,” she said now. “I’ll stop.”

“Thanks,” he said. “See you when—” He cut out again.

She put the phone down on the passenger seat, pulled back out, and continued on. Half an hour later, the voice on the GPS cheerfully announced, “You have reached your destination.”

But there was no farmhouse in sight.