“Every time you talk about your past my heart hurts a little. No TV? No music?”

“Reading by candlelight. Hobbies. You figure out how to entertain yourself. There was a summer some other kids and I dug a hole and covered it with slats of wood, and we called it our hideout.”

Erin pressed the heel of her hand to her heart.

“It was a good hideout. Really.”

“You were so deprived you couldn’t even build a treehouse.”

“We could’ve. We wanted to dig a hole. We covered it with dirt and sticks so people wouldn’t know it was even there, if they didn’t see the hole.”

“How old were you?”

“Ten? Eleven? About Kenzie’s age, I think.”

“When I was eleven? I think we went to Disneyworld at the start of summer. And I had six weeks of camp with the most irresponsible camp counselors. Tons of food we shouldn’t have been allowed to have, swimming, mud Olympics. One of the boys fell on the mud slide and broke two of his fingers.”

“It’s hard to imagine you being eleven.”

“I was the most awesome eleven-year-old. Man, I really wanted to go back there the next year, but I think our parents all shared notes and realized how dangerous it was.”

“When I was twelve, I think I spent the summer hunting with my dad’s best friend.”

“That sounds neat.”

“It—no. No, it really wasn’t.”

“Aw,” Erin said.

“Dull, wet, buggy. I got to shoot the gun once in three months. I missed.”

“Aww.”

“I was so excited to get back home and see my friends, get back to my routine. Then… no home to go back to. The trip with my dad’s friend was just to buy time for my parents to get everything sorted out for me to go live with my aunt.”

Rain was caught between a yawn and something that might have actually reflected his feelings, and decided to yawn.

“I’m sorry,” Erin said.

Rain shrugged.

“How’d you manage last night?”

She was asking about the dream, as much as she could with Bryce listening in.

“It wasn’t too bad. Pretty usual. I’m tired.”

“Yeah. You gonna grab a nap later?”

“I might. Have to get through school first, and I’m already feeling like I’ll doze because I have a full belly. I woke up to three girls around my age cooking breakfast.”

“Barefoot in the kitchen? Not going to school?”

“Pretty much,” Rain said.

“Spending time with you, seeing how you stack up?”

“I’m the one that’s supposed to be studying or showing interest in them,” he said.

“Creepy as—” Erin paused to put her hands over Bryce’s ears, “—shit.”