Chapter 65

Joey got to his feet but he made no sound other than a grunt Penny couldn’t interpret. Maybe he was relieved at the interruption. Maybe he was disappointed. Or maybe he just had stiff muscles from all that physical work in the garden.

He offered Penny a hand to help her up and she took it but it didn’t feel anything like the hand that had been caressing her skin only moments before.

And still, Joey didn’t say anything. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to, but then he closed it again, uttering nothing more than another uninterpretable sound as he bent over to pick up the garden fork.

Penny picked up the baby monitor. She glanced over her shoulder as she went to collect her shirt.

He was turning over earth as if his life de-pended on making this garden look as per-fect as possible.

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A foot on the fork. A pile of earth turned over. Smacking it with the prongs of the fork helped it fall apart and look like soil ready to accept new