Three
Morning was just barely edging its way past night when June slipped out of bed. She tip-toed to the window and looked out at the forest; three deer stood just down the hill from the cabin on the well-worn path to Pat and Aelissm’s. For a while, she stared at them, shivering with the lingering cold of night. When the deer moved off, she left her bedroom and went to Luke’s. Like the deer, she watched him for a while, leaning against the doorjamb with her arms folded tightly across her chest. The teenager was still asleep, and she wondered if his dreams had been pleasant. With Ben’s sudden and unexpected arrival, she had expected a nightmare to interrupt her son’s slumber, but he’d slept through the night.
Almost five years, she thought. Five wonderful years she had watched him grow f
