a/n: Okay, so you probably got a new chapter notification and you're like, "Um, hello? this isn't a new chapter!" Okay, you're right. It's not! But somehow I skipped a chapter? So if you go back to chapter 21, which is now called "New in Town," you will, in fact, have a whole new chapter! Just not...here at the end.

Enjoy, and drop me a line why dontcha. Direct action creates direct results.

i see the bad moon a-rising
i see trouble on the way
i see earthquakes and lightning
i see bad times today
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Bad Moon Rising"

Aug. 17-25
Each departure was staggered from the one before it. Larry went to Judge Farris first, and he accepted immediately. He seemed to know what he was getting into, and that he might not make it back, but Larry reported that he was ready. Eager, even. He'd been looking for a way to contribute more, and he'd already collected an impressive law library and rounded up all the legal-ish types from the general Boulder Free Zone population.

Susan and Fran spoke to Dayna, and she was just as ready as Judge Farris had been. She slipped off sometime in the night a few days later, and no one missed her at first. She tended to keep to herself, and since Mother Abagail's departure, Dayna and Judge Farris weren't the first to quietly take their leave.

It was a gloomy gray morning when Nick and Kai drove Tom west, about twenty miles or so outside of town, and Kai pulled over to the side of the road. They all climbed out, Nick and Kai quiet and reflective, Tom bubbling over with excitement about his "mission."

"Go west, laws yes!" he said. "Toward where the sun goes down, across the mountains, into the desert. Travel at night, sleep in the day."

"That's right, Tommy," Kai said. She struggled to find a smile. "You've got it."

"You remember when to head back?" Nick said.

He nodded. "When the moon's big and full! Not skinny little fingernail or half-size moon. Big fat round full moon!"

"Yep," Nick said. "You just watch the moon and you'll know."

Nick pulled Tom's bike off the rack and set it in the road. Gave the horn a toot that never failed to make Tom laugh. He honked it a few times and the sound echoed around the quiet canyon.

"Do you remember about the water tablets we gave you?" Kai said.

"Yep! If I can't find any water in bottles, like in a grocery store or a gas station, and I gotta get water out of a river or a crick, add a tablet before I drink it. It's safe to drink when it turns clear. M-O-O-N, that spells safe to drink!"

"Yeah it does," Nick said. He ruffled Tom's hair, then tossed him the hat he'd left in the backseat. "Don't forget Rae's hat! She gave you that for luck."

"Laws-a-mercy, I almost did!" He snatched it out of the air and set it on his head. It had always been a little big on Rae, but that still didn't account for how it fit Tom, who was about three times her size.

"It's like that movie," Nick had said when Kai remarked on it. "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

"You've seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?"

He'd just shrugged. "I've seen everything America Ferrera's ever been in, and yes that includes every season of Ugly Betty."

Now they stood watching as Tom hopped on his bike and rode in figure eights up and down the highway. He came back and braked in front of them. He wore a huge grin, and as he set the kickstand and hopped off he checked the basket for his most important things.

"Got my garage, my fire engine, and my jar of peanut butter," he said. "Everything else is in my backpack. I even got a sleepin' bag!"

"You should have everything you need," Nick said. "You'll have to get food and water along the way. Make sure you have plenty of water when you start to get into the desert."

"Stu tol' me all that. I remember!"

"We're just checking, Tommy. We're so proud of you for doing this, but we're worried too," Kai said.

He smiled at her and patted her shoulder with a big hand. "It's okay, Kai. Tom remembers everything you and Nick and Larry and Stu said." His smile faded, and he cast a forlorn look between them. "I wish my best friends Kai and Nick could go." He signed their names as he spoke them, and Kai had to fight back tears.

"You understand why we can't, don't you?" she said, her voice thick.

"I do. It's a one-man mission, and I'm the man!"

"That's right," Nick said. "You're the man. But, hey. You'll be watching the moon, right?"

"Yup, every night!"

"Good. We will too. You're watching the moon, we're watching the moon." Kai's voice broke on the words, but she cleared her throat and managed to finish translating. She noticed, too, that Nick's hands trembled as he formed the signs.

His face lit up. "Same moon!" He wrapped his arms around Nick in a giant bear hug and lifted him off his feet. "Tom, Nick, and Kai, lookin' at the same moon!"

He waved Kai over and pulled her into the hug too, and they were all three squished together like back in that barn in Kansas. Or had it been Oklahoma? It was impossible to remember, now. She grabbed a handful of Nick's shirt and held on tight, and she didn't let go even when Tom put them down.

"Go on now, Tommy," she said. "You need to get a good start before it gets much later."

"Y'all'll be here when Tom gets back, won't you? Nick and Kai, waitin' for Tom?"

"Of course we will," Nick said. "By then Susan will have the power back on, and Kai can make us some bread and you'll tell us everything you saw on your trip."

His shoulders lifted and fell as he took a breath and let it out. "Okay. I'm goin'. Take care of the gals for me! Bye, Nick. Bye, Kai! I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Tommy," she said. "We'll see you soon."

He hopped on his bike and started to peddle. Kai wrapped an arm around Nick's waist and he stroked a hand over her hair. They stood together watching until he was barely a speck in the distance. He honked the horn a few more times, but eventually even that faded into the gray.

"Breathe," Nick said to her. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

"I don't know if I can." Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she wiped them away with an angry shove of her hand. "I feel like we'll never see him again."

"Don't say that. He'll come home. I have a feeling."

She looked up at him, brow furrowed and mouth soft. "I didn't say he wouldn't come home, Nicky. I said we'd never see him again."

He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Her nose. Each damp cheek. "Is this about the dream?"

She gave a brief nod. "Sort of. I guess." She sniffled and let her forehead fall to his shoulder for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm just…worried."

"I know. I am too. Don't apologize." He pulled her against him and held her. Neither of them moved for a long time, despite the drizzle that started to fall around them.

"Come on," he finally said. He laced his fingers through hers and they started back toward the car. "Let's go home. You can help Rae and me move the girls from Tom's to our place."

"Nick…" She stopped him with a gentle tug at his hand. He turned, a question brightening his good eye, and for several long heartbeats she just stood studying him. Eventually she shook her head. "Nothing, never mind. Let's go."

He gave her a puzzled look, but he nodded and opened the passenger door for her. She glanced back over her shoulder, fighting a sudden chill, and a crow cawed at her from a power line. She glared at it. It made a noise almost like laughter, but then a roll of thunder cracked the gray sky and it flew off with an angry cry.

She refused to see omens in birds and thunderstorms. She was jumping at shadows, letting Flagg get under her skin. He was full of shit, and the sooner she put that fucking dream out of her mind the better off she'd be.

She smiled up at Nick, kissed him, and climbed into the car. Tom was gone, but they were still here, and they had a Free Zone to run.

Aug. 28-Sept. 4
The entire community came out for the Great Reawakening (as Glen had sarcastically dubbed it) dressed in their best. There was a countdown, and when the lights flickered on cheers abounded. Mother Abagail was still gone, but having the power back made it feel like maybe, just maybe, they could get on with things anyway.

Nick and Kai were there along with everyone else, cheering and laughing and toasting, but neither of them had their hearts entirely in it. They both worried about Tom. They both felt lost in a nebulous haze of dread that was so ill-defined that neither of them dared try to articulate it to the other.

It seemed like everyone in the Free Zone (or at least on the committee) was holding their breath. Waiting. Would Mother Abagail come back? What if she didn't? What would they do? The day-to-day running of the Zone was fine; she'd never really been a part of that anyway: but what about Flagg? He loomed like a specter, a dark cloud beyond the mountains that no one forgot about…even when sometimes it felt like they had.

The water came back, and for many of them that was an even bigger relief than the power. They had showers again, dishwashers, washing machines. Even just the ability to flip the tap and get a glass of water was something so many people had taken for granted, and now they had it again. Everyone used some form of water filtration, just in case, but that was a slight delay, not an obstacle.

All of this, and the rhythm of daily life—the welcome sessions, which slowed a bit as summer waned, the pantry, the cooking and sign language lessons they taught—attempted to lull them into a sense of normalcy, but mostly they refused to be lulled.

Kai, for her part, was too wired. Too tuned in to the memory of that damn dream. She did think Nick and Rae and Glen and everyone else were probably right about it, but doubt nagged at her, a tiny voice in the back of her mind that called her Eden and offered a fathomless stone with winking fire caught inside.

This was the mood she found herself in when she got home that afternoon in early September. It was still warm, and would be for another few weeks, but at night the smell of autumn was in the air. How the hell had Mother Abagail been gone for so long? Wasn't Jesus away for forty days and forty nights, or was that just Noah?

She parked in the driveway and got out, and halfway to the porch she froze. A figure stood there, partly in shadow, and before it stepped into the sunlight she thought—but no. It was Nadine Cross, one of the teachers she knew from the school. Kai and Nick had been teaching sign language to the kiddos three times a week, and they'd all taken to it like ducks to water. Nick could now carry on entire (short) conversations with most of the children in the Free Zone.

Kai's mind had wandered, but she forcibly dragged it back to the present and put on a smile. "Nadine? Is that you?"

The woman smiled back, and Kai took a moment to marvel at how classically beautiful she was. As tall as Kai, with deep dark eyes and that remarkable hair, down nearly to her waist and silky black except where the gray and silver threaded through it. Her features looked like they were carved from ivory, a perfect cameo.

"Kai!" she called now. She raised one white arm and waved, almost regally. "I'm so glad you're home!" she said.

Kai climbed the front steps and Nadine moved to meet her. Her tone was friendly enough, and her expression open, but there was something in her deep ochre eyes that gave Kai pause. There almost always was. She felt, somehow, that there were two people lurking in there: the Nadine who clearly loved kids, loved teaching, loved the Free Zone…and then the Nadine who would do such inexplicable things as move in with Harold Lauder.

Well. Maybe he was packing a lot of inches under those jeans—or his favorite book was the Kama Sutra. Or maybe it wasn't about sex at all, Kai was completely wrong about him, and she needed to learn a lesson about being so fucking judgy.

"Nadine," she said now. "This's a surprise. Is something up at school?"

"Hm? Oh, no! Nothing like that. I just was hoping to…get a few eggs! You have the chickens, right?" Her smile had a brittle quality now, but maybe she just didn't like chickens. Kojak surely hated them, ever since Miss Ruby had pecked his tail.

"We do," Kai said. "Come on through. How many do you need? Are you making something special?" Her eyes lit up. "Are you baking something!?"

Nadine grinned, a genuine one, it felt like. "Honestly if that's what I wanted I'd just skip the middleman and ask you to make it for me. No, I thought I'd try a quiche. SPAM and asparagus, maybe? With parmesan? My next stop is Rae's, for milk."

Rae had a small herd of goats she'd rescued from a farm outside of town, and now that she'd fattened them up again (they had been running low on grass, but luckily had had a nice big paddock to graze, with a secure fence, before Rae found them), they were giving milk and Rae had even started to make cheese. The latter wasn't great, but it was slowly getting better, and the former was a relief to anyone with a baby.

Kai opened the door and gestured for Nadine to follow her inside. "My mom was from Hawaii, and she loved SPAM. I ate it so much growing up, but not since then—until now. But it's surprisingly versatile."

Nadine tucked a lock of that remarkable hair behind her ear and lingered in the living room. "You have a beautiful home here, Kai. I hear you and Nick were part of the first group to get here? With—ah…"

"Mother Abagail. It's alright; you can say her name." A cloud passed through her eyes. "She's not dead," she said, quietly.

"No, no! Of course she isn't. I just—don't want to upset anyone. Especially all of you who knew—know—her so well." She patted Kai's arm, and her mouth moved in a moue of sympathy. "I'm sure she'll be back soon. The nights are starting to get chilly; an old lady can't be out in that much longer."

Kai swallowed around a sudden tightness in her throat, and her gaze flicked to Nadine's long white fingers on her forearm. Their skin tones were a remarkable contrast, even though Kai was merely tan and not truly brown. She let her eyes linger a moment before moving back to Nadine's face, and the other woman laughed, awkwardly, and dropped her hand.

"Of course, she isn't an ordinary old lady. We all know that."

"We do," Kai said. "Thankfully." She turned toward the kitchen. "This way."

A pallet of eggs sat on the counter, and Kai paused a moment. "Do you—have anything to carry them in?"

Two spots of color appeared on Nadine's high cheekbones. "Um. Well. I was hoping you might have something."

Kai said nothing, merely turned to dig through a cabinet. She emerged with an egg carton. "How many do you need? Six? A dozen?" She could hear Nadine's footfalls behind her, a sharp click of her boots, but Kai didn't turn.

"Ummm…can you spare a dozen? I don't want to put you out." She paused. "Shouldn't those be in the fridge?"

She carefully placed each egg in its little compartment and shut the carton. "No. Eggs are versatile and can be stored at room temperature. Just if you do put them in the fridge, they have to be kept there after that. We get them from the nests, clean them, and then store them on the counter. Saves fridge space, and if the power went out again—" She broke off with a brief shrug and finally turned. She offered the carton with a brittle smile. "Twelve eggs, ready to go."

Nadine reached for them, all effusive thanks, and quickly turned to go. Kai knew she should offer her tea or coffee, ask her to stay for a chat, but she didn't want to. And she sensed Nadine didn't want that, either. Instead she took her eggs and made a beeline for the front door. She paused a moment, her eyes scanning the room again, and Kai leaned against the dining room doorway with her arms crossed over her middle as she watched her.

"Is Harold a fan of quiche, then?" she said.

Nadine jumped like Kai had shouted and spun on her heel. Her face was even paler, if that were possible, and the skin across her strong bones looked tight. "Harold? What does—? Oh." She let out a brittle laugh. "Of course. It's one of his favorites. His idea, actually! I'd forgotten you had chickens." Her eyes narrowed. "They were Tom's weren't they? My goodness, what happened to him?"

Kai's mouth lifted at one corner. Touché. "We aren't sure," she said. "He was talking about going to look for Mother Abagail, and then one day he was just gone."

"That's so sad, Kai. What a terrible loss for you and Nick."

Her head tilted. "He's not dead, either," she said, her tone mild.

"I know," Nadine replied. "But a loss for the community. And it is awfully dangerous out there, what with all the wolves and…coyotes."

"Coyotes." Her eyes narrowed a fraction. "Yes."

Nadine took a few steps closer. The light hit her face strangely, exaggerated and sharped the angles. There was no softness there now, none of the woman Kai saw at school or with the children. "Did you have any trouble on the road with coyotes? They can be so bold."

"They can be," she said. She fought the urge to straighten as Nadine stalked closer. "Before the flu you sometimes heard stories of coyotes walking straight up onto people's porches, or into their homes." Her head tilted thoughtfully. "At least a coyote, while dog-shaped, has too much wildness in it to ever be mistaken for a friend."

She froze. A quick, confused smile passed over her features, and she seemed to shake herself. "Luckily that happens so rarely."

"Luckily," Kai said. She pushed herself off the doorjamb and met her in the middle. "You know, Nadine, if you ever need someone to talk to—someone besides a seventeen-year-old boy, I mean—I'm always here. Or Nick. He's a great listener."

Her mouth quirked almost cruelly. "How ironic." The moment it was out of her mouth her eyes clouded and she looked away, as if ashamed. Or confused. "I'm sorry. That was—rude."

"Somewhat. But I think we both know there are a lot of ways to listen, and only a small handful of them involve your ears." She touched her arm, briefly. "Find the quiet in the noise, Nadine. That's where peace lies."

Kai wasn't even entirely sure what she was saying, so when Nadine turned to her with confusion carved into her cameo face, she could only offer a rueful smile. "Or so I've heard," she said.

They stood staring at one another, the few inches between them seeming like a gulf, a canyon, but as the seconds ticked by she thought she saw something in Nadine's expression, something deep in those dark eyes (not a fire trapped in there, not like the stone) that caused Kai to lean toward her a little, a sort of desperate magnetism that wasn't the least bit sexual, but was still a command she couldn't ignore.

The mask cracked, and Kai got a glimpse of a different woman altogether, someone lost and frightened and so, so tired. Her heart cramped with sudden, dizzying compassion, but she had no idea what to do with it. Speak? Stay quiet? Kai's mouth fell open and her brow scrunched and she thought maybe Nadine might reach for her, a desperate woman grabbing at a lifeline blindly thrown, when the door behind her opened and the moment was broken.

Nadine spun, brittle and sharp as fine china, and Nick blinked at them in confusion. "Nick!" Nadine said. "How lovely. Always nice to see you." She signed a bit, the eggs tucked under her arm, and Nick offered a wary nod.

His glance darted over Nadine's shoulder to Kai, but at her look he stilled his expression and smiled at Nadine. He pointed at the eggs with a questioning lift of his brows.

"Kai was nice enough to share your bounty with me. I got so caught up in our conversation I forgot I need to get to Rae's. Quiche needs milk!" She scooted around Nick and offered Kai a short wave. "Thanks so much, Kai! I'll let you know how it turns out. You two have a great evening. Bye now!"

And then she was gone, down the steps and along the walk and onto her little scooter that leaned on its kickstand at the curb. She stashed the eggs in the basket and clipped on her helmet, and with another wave drove away. Nick and Kai stood side by side watching her go, and once she was out of sight Nick cast her a curious glance, but she gestured for him to follow her back inside.

She closed the door, and for the first time since arriving in Boulder, locked it. When she turned back to Nick his brows were lifted in surprise, but she just gave a restless, confused shrug and brushed past him toward the kitchen. He followed, knowing she would tell him what had her so worried in her own time, and leaned against the island while she put water on for tea. She placed a pair of muffins on a plate and handed it to him, and he wandered off to the table to wait for her there.

A few minutes later she set a mug and a jar of honey in front of him, and dropped down into the chair across the small breakfast table from him. He eyed her as he doctored his tea and split the muffin open, and after adding a generous dollop of honey to her own cup, she set down the spoon and her hands stilled.

He waited. She said nothing.

He ate a few bites of muffin. Blew on his tea to cool it and took a tentative sip.

"I don't know what the fuck just happened."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She drummed her fingers against the table and then stood up to pace. He drank a bit more tea before he set it aside and went to her. Clasped her upper arms in his hands and studied her face: stormy eyes, furrowed brow, tense mouth. He kissed her forehead and tugged her against him, his palms stroking her back.

Her arms went around him and her forehead fell to rest on his shoulder. Finally she pulled away and scraped her fingers back through her hair. "There's just something about her, Nicky."

"She's great with the kids."

"I know!" she said. "I know, and that's part of what confuses me so much. It's like she's two different people! And then I wonder if maybe I'm making shit up because she's apparently with Harold and I don't fucking get it and I don't trust him. So maybe I'm projecting all that onto her, which isn't fair at all. But surely if they're actually together then she must either…see his skeeviness and not care, or I'm entirely imagining it and she sees something I don't."

"You're not imagining it," he said. He touched her hand to stop her before she could say anything. "He came into the pantry today. Rae's scouts had just come back with a huge haul and we were unloading it all, and he offered to help. Sure, fine, we can always use extra hands, and he's a really hard worker. Everyone says it, and they're right. The work he's done with the burial committee…"

He trailed off. A series of emotions passed over his expressive face. His good eye drifted to a point above her head and stayed there for a long time before he focused on her again. "It's not him," he said.

"It's a mask he puts on and takes off."

He nodded. "The smile, the camaraderie, the diligence. There's some truth there, but…I think it gets less true every day."

She sagged against the counter and ran a hand over her face. "Nadine's the same, I think. She does love those kids. She loves Joe. But something has its teeth in her and isn't letting go."

His mouth quirked. "Maybe Harold—" She batted his hand down before he could finish the thought, and he grinned. "What? Not the mental image you were looking for?"

Struggling not to laugh, she shook her head and glared at him. "You're not as cute as you think you are."

"You always say that and it's never true." He wrapped his arms around her and she tilted her head back for a kiss. It lingered and stretched, and when they parted they were both smiling. Another soft kiss to her forehead and her to his jaw before they got serious again.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" he said.

She hesitated, her teeth working her lower lip, but then her hands started to move and she told him everything, from the moment she pulled into the driveway till he opened the door and interrupted them. He listened attentively, arms crossed over his chest and brows drawn together, and when she finished he shifted his weight and let his eye roam the kitchen again.

His fingers flicked in a sort of hm gesture. Her head tilted in acknowledgement.

"Before she walked into the light, I thought…I don't know. I was imagining things."

"No," he said with a soft frown, "tell me."

"Ahh…I don't know. Eye shine. Like animals? Like…coyotes." She shivered and rubbed her arms. "That sounds crazy."

"It doesn't." His brows quirked. "Funny she should mention coyotes in particular."

"It is, isn't it?" she said.

"That at the end, just before I got here…."

"Like I said: two different people."

"Do you think she really wanted eggs?"

She sighed. Slumped back against the counter again. "I don't know. Maybe? Probably not."

He gave a slow, thoughtful nod. "So why then? Looking for something?"

"Like, snooping?"

He lifted his hands in a shrug. "Maybe? But…also maybe not. Maybe she just wanted someone to talk to. She seems…lonely."

She eyed him a moment. "Does she now?"

"Don't look at me like that," he said with a glower. "I'm deaf; what do I have to do all day besides watch people? She looks at Larry like he's an oasis in the desert, and I've never seen her look at Harold at all. She watches Joe like she's afraid he might either shatter or explode, and then sometimes she seems haunted. I mean that literally, like she's some Victorian waif surrounded by ghosts nattering in her ear." He paused. "A very tall Victorian waif. Waifs are usually short, aren't they?"

"Small stature is generally considered a prerequisite for the condition."

"That's what I thought," he said, satisfied. "Or maybe it's just the hair that gives that impression."

Her lips twisted. "You think her hair's going gray from ghosts?"

"I don't believe in ghosts, generally. But as we've discussed, I don't believe in a lot of things that've turned out to be true."

She lifted a brow. "I don't believe that a woman who looks like Nadine Cross would be with a boy like Harold Lauder. And I don't just mean physically. She has a sophistication about her that seems so at odds with someone as young as he is."

"The Victorian waif thing again."

"I suppose," she said, rolling her eyes to keep from smiling. "But, like I said, maybe I'm wrong about him and there's something there I can't see."

"Or maybe she's doing as she was told."

She froze. Her eyes widened as her mind raced and his meaning became clearer. "Nick, no, that's—" She shifted from one foot to the other. "That's not—I'm not saying she's—" She shook her head slowly, but he could tell the idea was taking root. "Why? What would be the point?!"

He shrugged. "We both see how they're conflicted. Harold seems to genuinely like some of the people here, and, like I said, he works hard. Good work. And we know Nadine loves the kids, especially Joe. They have attachments here. Friends. People they care about. They're both…on the edge." He held his hand up, sideways, and tilted it back forth. "Could tip either way."

"Shit," she said. She closed her eyes as though not being able to see the words she signed would make them untrue. "Together they have each other. They tip the way he wants them to."

He touched her wrist so she'd look at him again. "It's just a theory."

"But a solid one." Her mouth was a grim line. "So what do we do?"

He frowned. Rested one hand on his hip and twisted the other one through his hair. His fine features were scrunched and pensive.

Finally he threw both palms in the air. "No idea. What can we do? You can't just—accuse people of shit. And maybe there are things we aren't seeing. Harold's smart. Frannie said he's a writer, or was, before. Maybe she's attracted to young, sensitive broody types."

She nodded, eager for another possibility. "Like a Percy Shelley type."

"Yeah, sorta." He paused, thoughtfully. "We could ask Joe."

"Nick—"

"I know," he said before she could finish the thought. "I know he's non-verbal, but I've been working with him, and he seems to enjoy signing. He's picked it up fast. He's not deaf, and physically he can talk—at least I think so—but signing seems to've unlocked him a little bit. I've taught Larry and Lucy more, too, and Larry said it's helped."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she said. She wasn't annoyed, just curious, but his chin dropped to his chest anyway.

"He…reminds me of me. Some. I mean, I am deaf and I—didn't know how to communicate—but…the anger and the fear. That was me. Rudy saw something worth…saving, I guess. Worth helping. I see that in Joe. It's…not easy being trapped in your own head. I couldn't physically speak, and he can't mentally, but at the end of the day, it's still being trapped."

She touched his hand, then his cheek, and he lifted his head to look at her. "That's…really beautiful, Nicky. That you recognize that in him, and you want to do for him what Rudy did for you. I know he'd be proud. Hell, I'm proud." Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him. "That's my man," she said with a smirk.

"I was going to tell you," he said. "I just thought we needed a little more time."

"It's okay." She kissed him again, longer and slower. "You're a wonderful human and I love you."

He rolled his eye back in his head in a kind of don't I know it gesture, and she poked him. "Hey!" he said, affronted.

"No time for ego trips now, babe. Save it for later. Nadine was also asking about Tom."

That got his attention, and all traces of levity left his face. "What did you tell her?"

"Our cover. That he went after Mother Abagail."

"She buy it?"

"I don't know. She wasn't that keen on it, so maybe she was just being nosy. Or maybe she was genuinely wondering."

"Maybe," he said, exaggerating the movements to show his doubt.

She chewed her thumbnail. "Can we talk to Joe about this without traumatizing him further?"

"I think so. If we're careful. Let me take the lead."

"Yeah, of course." She blew out a long breath and dropped to rest her elbows on the counter. She buried her face in her hands a moment before dragging her fingers down her cheeks. "I want us to be wrong."

"I do too," he said when she finally looked at him. "But you've had a bad feeling about Harold from the beginning, and your instincts are usually good."

She straightened and poked him again, this time in the shoulder. "This one was your idea, buddy."

"Inspired by you."

She gave an annoyed huff, almost a growl. He couldn't hear it, but he recognized the look. "Next time maybe I can just inspire a painting or a wet dream."

"You've inspired plenty of dreams, babe. And I'm a terrible painter." He put an arm around her and kissed her temple. "Come on, let's go over to Larry's. Lucy probably won't be home yet, but he and Joe should be there. We can get his take on Nadine, too."

"Let's stop at Rae's on the way and see if Nadine got her milk."

"That's my Hawaiian-Creole Nancy Drew," he said with a grin. "Let me go change. Lots of heavy lifting today. Five minutes." He kissed her and bounded toward the stairs.

She watched him go, her expression rueful. Maybe they should just leave it alone. Harold and Nadine would slip out one night, head for Vegas, and they'd just be another pair of deserters. Except these two had personal connections to the committee, and they were so involved in the community that their disappearance would be actively noticed.

They would be missed.

She wondered if they realized that. She wondered if it would make a difference if they did.

something is happpppening