In one hand, the necks held between his fingers, were two bottles of beer. In the other, one beer.

Annie went back out onto the porch, descended the three steps, and stood near her car as the man closed the distance between them.

“Good day,” he said, raising the bottles in his right hand. “Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time. I brought three. Wasn’t sure whether it was you and your husband or just you.”

“Me and my boy,” Annie said, and realized that Charlie was on the porch. “That’s Charlie.”

The man nodded. “Good to meet you, Charlie.” He grimaced and waved the bottles in the air. “I’d’ve brought a Mountain Dew or somethin’ had I known. Don’t think your mom’s gonna let you have one of these.” Then he eyed Annie. “And for all I know, you don’t care for beer. I’m always assuming, and we all know what assume means. I’d say it if young Charlie wasn’t standing there.”

Annie smiled. “I’m Annie Blunt.”

She took the one beer from him and then extended a hand. She felt the cold droplets of beer sweat on his palm.

“I’m Daniel. Daniel Patten. And the beers here is a peace offering.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I know my wife gave you the cold shoulder yesterday. Not very neighborly and I wanted to try to patch things up.”

“It was nothing,” Annie said, and then motioning up the steps, said, “Why don’t you come in.”

It took him a moment to climb them. “My knees aren’t what they once were,” he said. When Annie held open the front door for him, he didn’t move and looked dubious about crossing the threshold.

“Why don’t we just sit out here?” he suggested. “Shame not to enjoy the lovely weather.”

“Sure.” She waved a hand toward the wicker chairs.

Daniel delicately set himself into one and Annie dropped into the other. She twisted the cap off the cold bottle in her hand and took a swig.

“So you do like a beer,” Daniel said, grinning, exposing a couple of brown teeth.

“I do indeed,” she said. “And it’s hot enough out to appreciate one.”

“A local brewery. About ten miles from here.”

“Charlie, why don’t you find something to do while I chat with Mr. Patten here.”

“Daniel,” he said. “You can call me Daniel, young man.”

Charlie didn’t look offended in the slightest to be dismissed, but he had a question for Annie before departing. “Can we look for a bike later?”

“We’ll talk about that.”

“You could try Jake’s Hardware in town. They sometimes have bikes,” Daniel said.

“We’ll talk,” Annie said again. Charlie got the message, and vanished.

Daniel said, “Dolores—that’s my missus—isn’t much for socializing. She came in, looked a titch flustered, and then I looked out and saw that you folks had moved in.”

Flustered? Annie didn’t see why saying hello would unsettle anyone. Had she given off some kind of New York vibe that rubbed this man’s wife the wrong way? If so, she couldn’t imagine what it was.