Just a quick stop before she went to the office. Ellis worked shifts, but he'd be home this morning. Caroline wanted Amalise to meet her husband. As she walked up the front porch steps, Amalise spotted Luke to her left, almost hidden behind a hedge of bushes that grew along the porch railing. He sat alone on a wooden bench swing. She walked over to the swing, set her purse down, and took a seat beside him. He didn't look up. His head reached only to the level of her shoulders. Thin legs poked out from his pants, dangled over the edge of the swing like two small twigs. "Hello, Luke." She kept her voice low and casual. He tensed like a small, trapped animal. So she turned her gaze forward through the clear fall light. From the interior of the house she could hear Daisy chattering to Caroline. A dove called to its mate in the tree behind her, the oak hung with Daisy's rope swing.
