A tired and distraught Bennett came up with Harper, saying the little girl was cold and wanted to go home. Harper stood next to her, looking down at her boots and saying nothing. Nest nodded and suggested they all head back to the house for some much needed hot chocolate.
Tightening collars and scarves against the deepening chill, they walked back across the snowy expanse of the ball diamonds toward Sinnissippi Townhomes, pointing for the lights and the thin trailers of smoke from chimneys illuminated by a mix of street and porch lights reflected off the hazy sky. The last of the car lights trailed out of the park and disappeared. From the direction of the homes bordering the service road, someone called out a name, waited a moment, then slammed a door.
Nest cast about for Pick once more, but there was still no sign of him. She worried momentarily that something had happened, then decided it was unlikely and that if it had, she would have sensed it. Pick would show up by morning.
They reached the house and went in, dumped boots, coats, gloves, and scarves by the back door, and moved into the kitchen to sit around the table while Nest heated milk and added chocolate mix and put out more of Josie’s cookies. She was still irritated with herself for being so incautious, but she was angry as well with Findo Gask and wondered what she could do to stop him from trying anything else. If he was willing to attack them out in the open, with other people all around, he might be willing to attack them anywhere.
They ate the cookies and drank the hot chocolate, and Bennett took Harper off to bed. When she came back, Nest had finished cleaning up and was sitting alone at the table.
Bennett walked to the sink and looked out the kitchen window. “I’m going out for cigarettes.”
Nest kept her expression neutral. “It’s pretty late.” She wanted to say more, to dissuade Bennett from going anywhere, but she couldn’t think of a way to do it. “Maybe you should wait until morning.”
Bennett looked down at her feet. “It won’t take long. I’ll just walk up to the gas station.”
“You want some company?” Nest started to rise.
“No, I need some time alone.” Bennett moved away from the counter quickly, heading for the door. “I’ll be right back.”
Nest stood staring after her. A moment later, the back door opened and closed again, and Bennett was gone.
-=O=-***-=O=-
Bennett Scott walked up the drive and turned onto the shoulder of Woodlawn Road, working on the zipper of her coat as the cold burned against her skin, her boots plowing deep furrows through the new-fallen snow. She breathed in the biting air and folded her arms against her slender body. She had never liked the cold. Snowplows hadn’t gotten this far out yet, and Woodlawn was still carpeted in white. A few cars eased past, locked in four-wheel drive, but mostly the road was empty and the night silent.
Bennett lowered her head against the cold and hugged her body. She knew she wasn’t being rational. She didn’t know what had brought her outside again, just knew she had to get away for a while. When she realized the sled had gone over and Harper was out there somewhere in the dark where she couldn’t see her, maybe hurt, maybe worse, she just lost it. That was why she had attacked Nest, almost without thinking about it, reacting instinctively to her own fear. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Harper. The little girl was really all she had, the only thing in her life she hadn’t managed to screw up. She would do anything to protect her, and she expected everyone else to do the same, though she didn’t really think they would, and that was what ate at her. But she’d had confidence in Nest; she’d trusted her big sister.
She trudged through the snow, head lowered, eyes fixed on a moving point in space several feet in front of her boots. It hurt her to be angry then realize her anger was misplaced and wrong. She would walk awhile, wait for things to cool down. Nest wasn’t angry with her and wouldn’t hold it against her that she had blown up. Not Nest. Never Nest.