“Oh? Well, with Jeff out of town, I haven’t been doing much cooking. Why don’t we pick up a pizza? No one will know you in that low-key car you’re driving.”

It was definitely eye-catching.

“You can stay in the car, then we can go over to the old barn and have a picnic. It’ll be nice.”

“That sounds good.”

Dawn gathered a sheet and some paper towels to take with them.

They were able to get their pizza and get out of town without being noticed.

When Andrew drove past the McIntyres’ house, a twinge of something soared through him. Guilt? Sorrow? He’d done a pretty good job ignoring those old feelings, but being right here—practically in her front yard—made it a little harder.

He glanced over toward Dawn, who was smiling gently at him. “You okay?” she asked.

“Sure.” He remembered this stretch of road. He’d travelled this path what seemed like a million times to meet up with Kelly.

“Do you know where you are?”

“I do.” The tallest loblolly pine in North Carolina was on the left. “This was halfway between Mom and Dad’s house and Kelly McIntyre’s. We used to meet here.”

“I guess you do remember that. You did community service for a whole summer to make up for defacing that tree.”

“All in the name of love.” He laughed, although it hadn’t been funny at the time. He’d had to do community service and pay a big fine. “Every time I walked or rode Doc down here to meet Kelly, I’d hum that old Diamond Rio song, ‘Meet in The Middle.’”

“I loved that song.”

“Me too. In the song there were seven hundred fence posts to the middle. There weren’t that many on this walk, but I’d lay odds that I’ve been down this path every bit of seven hundred times.”

“Y’all were really good together.”

He pulled up to the old barn in the curve. “We were.” The creek ran right behind it, and as kids, he and Dawn had picnicked here often. He was thankful to arrive so they could change the subject.

They ate pizza and skipped rocks on the creek like they had as kids. It was a relaxing afternoon. He hadn’t realized how tense he was, but boy could he tell the difference now that he wasn’t.

Dawn tucked the trash into the pizza box. “We’d better get back to Mom’s. She’ll be mad if I keep you all to myself, especially while Dad’s out of town. I like to help her with the horses at night when Dad’s not around.”

“Sounds good.” Andrew led the way back to the car, and they headed home. Nightfall came early this time of year, and the sun was already dipping low beyond the horizon when he pulled into the driveway.