Dane had the following day off. It snowed overnight and coated everything in the backyard with inches of pure white that gleamed in the morning sun. Dane cooked pancakes and left them warming in the oven while he went outside to fill the birdfeeders. The little buggers might be small, but they certainly ate a lot. Sayer was still in bed, and Dane wanted to let him sleep as long as he could.
The cold air bit at Dane’s exposed skin and felt crisp and sharp in his lungs. There were deer tracks around the salt licks, and he could tell the squirrels had been at their feeders. He and Liz used to watch them from the back porch and laugh at their antics.
As companionable as he and Liz had been, and in spite of what Sayer had said the night before, Dane knew that the lack of physical connection w
