“They might have a good life waiting for them there.”

“I know, but—”

“But you’re scared Cooper doesn’t want that.”

“No, I—”

“Pete, you’re scared that Cooper doesn’t want that. Doesn’t want some town.”

Peter stood, making his way back to the window and wondered what it’d be like if Cooper appeared at the front door now with tickets for a double bill at the movies that night and enough money for popcorn and soda for two. He wondered this. He wondered this so much. But only for a moment.

“He loves it out there,” he said, looking off towards the mountains. “I’m not even sure I can keep him here, let alone in a town.”

“No one’s for keeping, Pete.”

“I know.”

“That’s not love.”

“But—”

“And it’s not love giving up too much of yourself for someone else either.”

“I should go.”

“Pete,” said his dad, leaning forward. “Look at me.”

“I’m OK. I just need to find Tokala to tell him about that family in case he knew them.” Then, “In case he knows something more.”

“Cooper loves you. It won’t matter to him where you are, but you can’t spend your whole time fighting to keep him.”

“He won’t like it there. He’ll feel suffocated.”

“And what about you? What do you want? You’ve dreamed about the world that was before the Dead your whole life. And now you’re finally close to getting just a tiny slice of it, it’s as if your own dreams don’t even matter any more.”

“I don’t care. I just want to be with him. And I want to make this place work for Rider, like he always hoped it would.”

“And Rider would love you for that gesture, I’m sure,” said his dad. “But what’s done is done and staying here will never make up for what happened here.”

“Won’t it?”

“And you and Cooper are sure everybody’s safe here?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure that hunter’s dead in the bottom of a river somewhere?”

Peter saw Snowball in his mind’s eye, toppling over the cliff swarmed by clambering limbs. Nothing could survive that fall. But he didn’t answer the question. Dad picked the tools back up off the floor to resume his woodwork and set the rocker in motion.

“Pete,” he said after a while.

“What?”

“Why do you think someone knew to go looking for Returnees in Yellowstone?”

“Because they’d been told that the family had decided to stay back when they weren’t meant to.”

“And you think we’re not meant to?”

Peter nodded. “Maybe.”

Flames surged inside the burner, making the stovepipe howl like the wind had got inside it. His dad pushed the rocker down with his foot and the weight of that thought lingered in the air between them.