Chapter 11. The Man on the Slope

Josie's POV

I called my father at six in the morning and asked him how he'd found me, and for the first time in my life, he lied to me.

I knew the story. Everyone in Cedar Run knows it. Walt Morrow, out on the west line one October, tracking a rogue who'd been taking calves. He hears crying. He finds a little girl in a hollow oak, soaked through, no shoes, no memory, and he carries her home to my mother under his coat. He tells it every Christmas, the same way every time, like a man singing you his favorite song.

"Kiddo." He sounded wide awake. My father has been up at five every day of his life. "Everything okay up there?"

"Dad. Was there anything with me? In the tree. Anything on me?"

I can't smell a lie over the phone. I didn't need to. I know how he breathes when he's te