Page 299 of Hide and Keep

“Some people fish off it,” Crue adds.

I tune back in to tease, “Like you?” His fishing story was very believable.

He gives an unconvincing, yet flirty, “Maybe.”

“When’s the last time you fished, son?” Reid asks, sparking a conversation about the one and only time the two of them went fishing together back when Crue was still in elementary school, before wrestling claimed all of his free time.

Diving into my thoughts again, I don’t even realize we’ve made it back to the Brantleys’ until Crue shouts my name. Looking up, I find myself in front of their neighbor’s house, apparently having blown right by Crue’s.

“Whoops,” I say as I quickly backtrack a house.

“Don’t worry about it. It happens all the time,” Phoebe reassures me.

“The houses do sort of look alike.” If I was paying attention, I could’ve looked for the purple door.

“Mom, Dad, Ever needs some statues out front so she can tell which house is ours.”

“I don’t,” I tell Crue’s parents with a headshake.

“Crue,” Phoebe tsks before telling me, “Just look for the sailboat mailbox. That’s ours.”

I glance back at the mini sailboat replica made into a mailbox, the number 597 on it.

“It matches the keyrings.”

Her keyring has yet another smaller sailboat replica on it.

“Sailboat. Got it.”

Phoebe and Reid excuse themselves inside.

“You can dump the cooler in the flower beds, then meet me in the shower out back,” Crue tells me on his way to the backyard to drop the kayaks by the side of the house.

“I didn’t even get that wet,” I point out. We didn’t swim and I didn’t capsize, so only the bottom halves of my legs got wet. I am sandy though.

“Not yet,” Crue threatens, and I grin.

Bent down, almost finished scattering the ice under the hydrangeas, I hear voices and freeze. The manor’s neighbors live too far away to overhear anything.

“Someone should tell her.”

“Let someone else.”

I strain my ears a little harder, hoping they’ll spill more details than that.

“Excuse me.”

My eyes wander around the bush as I wait to hear this.

“Excuse me? Miss?”

Glancing to the side, I jump when I notice someone behind me. I stand immediately and spin around to face the two older women, one on the sidewalk and one only a few feet away from me.

“Yes?”

“Do you know that boy’s history?”

“Crue?”

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