“Holy crap,” Neil said. “Who lives here?”
“Nobody. It’s just an extra place. I thought about renting it out, but I’m not sure I’d want anybody that close to me.”
Neil turned to look at him. “What if it was one of us? Dude, I grew up in a trailer just like this, till I was twelve. That’s when my mom took off, and I ended up in foster homes. I’d rent this from you, if you’d be willing.”
Noah looked at the kid for a minute, then grinned. “We can do that,” he said. “We’ll work out the details later, but you can move in whenever you want. Just tell me how much rent you think it’s worth, and that’ll be fine with me.”
Neil seemed ecstatic, and spent a couple of minutes exploring the trailer. Noah gave him a key as they all went on down to the boathouse, and the kid left shortly thereafter to start moving. Noah took out his phone and called Allison, just to make sure this deal was okay with her, and she gave her blessing.
Noah, Sarah and Moose took the boat out for a couple of hours, then went back to the house and spent the rest of the day just hanging out, and talking. Sarah went into the kitchen and dug through Noah’s freezer and pantry, then made a pizza for them for lunch. It was surprisingly good, and Noah said so.
“I had a boyfriend who ran a pizzeria,” she said, “and he taught me. I’m really not much of a cook, but I can make pretty good pizza, and a few other Italian meals. My lasagna? To die for! Treat me nice, and I’ll make it sometime.”
“I love lasagna,” Moose said. “Treat her real nice, boss.”
They ate at the table, but then wandered into the living room and watched a movie. Noah wasn’t terribly surprised when Sarah sat down beside him on the sofa, or when she moved closer and pulled his arm around her shoulders. He smiled, and she returned it, but he could see in her eyes that she was fully aware that the smile was strictly for her benefit.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” she said. “I would imagine that it’s been hard, all these years, not to be able to just be yourself. You don’t have to pretend with us. We know you don’t really feel anything. You don’t have to fake it.”
Moose nodded his head. “She’s got a good point,” he said. “With us, it’s okay to just be—well, whoever you really are. We know the score, so if you don’t laugh, or you don’t smile, we’re not gonna get upset.”
Noah looked from one to the other, then nodded his head. “Thank you,” he said. “I haven’t had anyone who really knew about me since I was a kid, or at least no one who would just accept it. I think it would be nice to be able to let my guard down, here at home anyway.”
Sarah smiled, genuinely this time, and turned to watch the movie. That movie led to another one, and then to a third. Like Noah, Sarah and Moose were enjoying the opportunity to just relax.
It was almost six in the evening by the time they were sick of watching movies, and Moose was making noises about being hungry again. Noah offered to cook dinner, but Moose suggested they go out, instead. There was a restaurant that he knew of that was only a few miles away on Temple Lake Road, actually a little ways off the compound, but they weren’t restricted.
“Come on,” Moose said, “it’s my treat. Maybe I’m beginning to realize you’re not that bad a guy, and maybe I’m beginning to think I shouldn’t have said that about us never being friends. Let me buy dinner, I promise you’re gonna love this place.”
Noah got to his feet, and pulled Sarah up behind him. “It isn’t that often somebody offers to buy me dinner,” he said. “I’m not about to turn that down.”
They followed Moose out to his car, a surprisingly sedate-looking Chevrolet sedan. Noah looked at him. “I would have figured you for the sports car type.”
Moose shook his head. “Not really, not me,” he said. “That would’ve been my kid brother, but he wrapped himself around a tree a couple years ago. He’s alive, but he’s in a wheelchair, now. That sort of put an end to any hot rodding ideas, for both of us.”
Noah felt his eyebrows shoot up. “You have a brother? I thought we weren’t supposed to have any living relatives.”
Moose grinned. “My brother is convinced that I’m dead, and that he actually went to my funeral. I was killed in a fiery car crash, so it was a closed coffin. They didn’t have to go to a lot of trouble to come up with a body, in my case. I’m not sure, but I think the casket was empty.”
They got into the car, and Moose drove back up the county road to the two-lane blacktop, and then turned right. Because of the curves, the trip took almost fifteen minutes, even though it was only about five miles to the restaurant. They pulled up in front of a rustic-looking building that had a big sign over its front porch that read, “The Sagebrush Saloon.”