Contents ( 66)
- Cover
- Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Florida
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- thirty-eight
- thirty-nine
- forty
- forty-one
- forty-two
- forty-three
- forty-four
- forty-five
- forty-six
- forty-seven
- forty-eight
- forty-nine
- fifty
- fifty-one
- Epilogue
- Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
- Prologue
- one
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
For the next few days, Peyton spent most of his time at the hospital with his mother, sitting on a stiff, uncomfortable sofa in the sixth-floor waiting room until visiting hours finally rolled around. School would be out soon anyway, so his mother had arranged for him to finish his studies at home—“home,” for now, being the hospital. His father was occasionally responsive but never spoke and didn’t rest easy with anybody except Peyton’s mother, who hadn’t left for a second since the accident.
When Winston and Prentiss called to see if Peyton wanted to go fishing, she insisted that he take the opportunity to escape the oppressive confines of sickness and get some fresh air. The three boys rode their bikes to a put-in on the Skidaway River. It was the great indignity of being fifteen that all three of them could drive—and freely motored around the family farmland in work trucks—but out here, on the open road, they were not allowed behind the wheel without an adult. They remained one birthday away from a driver’s license and its promise of manhood.
Propping their bikes against some scrub pines, they headed for a johnboat that was resting upside down by the water. It wasn’t secured and never had been. All the locals used it and recognized it, so any thief would be summarily caught and throttled. Everybody knew to return it to this exact spot when they were done. Out of habit, the trio jumped back as they flipped the boat over, a precaution against any water moccasins that might’ve nested there since the last time it was in the river.
“Grab the cooler,” Winston said to Peyton as he laid their fishing rods in the boat. In any given situation, Winston assumed authority, even when he had no idea what he was doing. It had been so since they were kids. Peyton would go along unless Winston headed in a particularly stupid direction, and then he would find a way to change their course while making his cousin believe he was still in charge. It kept the peace and kept them out of harm’s way.
He unstrapped the small cooler from the rack on the back of his bike and loaded it in before they shoved off and jumped into the boat. Peyton winked at Prentiss as the two of them took up oars and let Winston have the front seat they knew he wanted—the captain’s position, of course. Prentiss grinned back at him as they dipped their oars into the water and the boat glided downriver.
They were quiet for a while before Prentiss said, “You been stayin’ at the hospital an awful lot.”
“Don’t want to leave Mama by herself,” Peyton said with a shrug.
“What do the doctors say?” Prentiss asked.
“Some of ’em say Daddy’ll get better, some of ’em say he won’t. This one says he’s gotta have brain surgery, that one says it’ll kill him. I don’t know how Mama stands it—’specially with Uncle Julian over there every day telling her she’s too emotional to make decisions and needs to let him do her thinking for her. She won’t, though, and I’m glad.”