red hill - jamie mcguire

Chapter Twenty
Nathan
ZOE HAD BEEN SPENDING A lot of time outside on the porch before and after her studies with Ashley.
Scarlet may have inspired her, I couldn’t be sure. When Zoe was asked what she was doing, she
would barely explain.
“Waiting,” she would say. She alternated between examining her fingers as they rested in her lap
and squinting to see beyond the hill.
I’d learned not to ask what she was waiting for. She wouldn’t tell me. I worried that she was
missing her mother, but if Aubrey wasn’t who or what she was waiting for, I didn’t want to upset Zoe
by bringing it to her attention. I worried that being safe wasn’t enough for my daughter. Then again,
she seemed happy and hadn’t had an episode in over a week, so maybe I was so used to having
something to worry about with her that I was overthinking things.
“Zoe” I said, joining her on the porch. She’d been waiting quietly for nearly half an hour, and
Ashley was waiting for her at the table. “Miss Ashley has made up some multiplication flash cards
for you to try.”
“I don’t really like math,” she said.
I smiled. “I don’t really like math, either, but sometimes we have to do things that aren’t fun.”
Her expression was thoughtful. “We have to do that a lot.”
“Some days more than others. Are you ready”
Zoe shook her head. That took me off guard. Zoe had never flat-out told me no before. I wasn’t
sure how to react.
“Why not”
She pointed at the road. I turned, seeing a man and a girl just clearing the hill. At first I was
startled, but then I realized they weren’t sick.
“Is that Scarlet’s family” Zoe asked.
“No. I mean, it doesn’t look like them.” The man was very tall and lanky, with his bald spot
obvious from and vulnerable to the morning sun. His arms were abnormally long, and the closer they
came, the longer they seemed to be.
“Scarlet!” I called, wanting to mentally slap myself the second I yelled her name. Just like I feared,
she came running out the door, already breathing hard from hope and anticipation.
“Is it them” she asked, just as they came running for the farmhouse.
“Oh, God, no, I’m sorry,” I said, feeling like a complete ass.
Scarlet kept her eyes on the pair, swallowing loud as they approached. Her whole body tensed and
leaned in such a way that it looked like her heart was breaking on the outside of her body.