“This is strange,” I said.
“What is?”
“Eating here.”
He looked around.
“We’ve eaten on this couch a hundred times.”
“Not in this room.”
He nodded.
“That part is new.”
I took another bite and looked toward the windows.
Outside, the yard had gone dark. There were no lights from the compound, no motorcycles pulling in, and no brothers walking past our door. I hadn’t realized how much background noise had been part of my life until it was gone.
“Do you miss it already?” Dane asked.
“A little.”
He didn’t look surprised.
“I do too.”
I turned toward him.
“You do?”
“I lived there longer than you did.”
“I know, but you were the one acting ready to leave.”
“I was ready.”
He set his food down.
“That doesn’t mean I stopped caring about the place.”
I understood that.
Leaving the c
