Sebastian shrugged. Anthony shrugged.

“Chase!” called Lu. “Chasecomedownhererightnow!” Footsteps thudded down the stairs. The older brother appeared in the kitchen and Lu gathered him into the hug. “Thank God everyone’s okay,” she said.

“Mommy, I can’t breathe,” whispered Sebastian.

Anthony felt like he was intruding on a very private moment, but it didn’t seem right to slip out the door with no official farewell, so he let his eyes wander around. This kitchen was much more updated than the one in Fitzy’s uncle’s house; it was painted a cheerful light green and had modest but modern kitchen appliances and a small center island. On the island was an open laptop. Something propelled Anthony toward the laptop, and suddenly Lu was slamming the computer closed before Anthony could see what was on the screen. Interesting, thought Anthony. Lu had a secret. He filed that information away for future consideration.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Lu said. Her face had gone pale and her freckles stood out like dark spots. “I have no idea how that happened, and I don’t know how to thank you. You absolutely saved his life. He’s a total space shot. If you hadn’t come along when you did, he would have walked in over his head, chasing that seagull.”

Anthony found himself at a loss for words. It was an unusual situation; he’d never saved a life before. No problem seemed inadequate. Glad I could help: too insouciant. He studied Lu. Once again Anthony was reminded of Amanda Loring in the fourth grade, with her open, honest face, her pigtails and freckles, her prowess on the four square court. Finally he settled on, “You don’t need to thank me.” Then he added, “Just . . . be well.”

Be well? He chastised himself later, back in his own cottage. Who talked like that? Citizens of the Victorian era? Now he was unsettled. The image of the boy, so close in age to Max, walking to—not just to, but into—the water, untended. Children could slip past adults so easily. The menaces in the world were so many, so varied and numerous, that it was a wonder any of them made it to adulthood unscathed.

He thought about Lu and the way she’d slammed down the cover of her laptop. Well, people did things online they weren’t quite proud of. They shopped too much; they cruised pornography sites; they got caught up in headlines that said things like, “You Won’t Believe What This Star from the Eighties Looks Like Now!” and spent a three-hour stretch falling down a rabbit hole. And sometimes their young sons took a walk on the beach all by themselves while people weren’t paying attention.

Anthony was tired. Partly he could attribute his fatigue to the unaccustomed exercise. In another time, another life, he could finish a five-mile run in thirty-five minutes, easy. But not anymore. Also, it was exhausting, interacting with other people after so many solitary hours. He cast one longing look at the decanter.