Surely he doesn’t intend to stay awake all night. After all, he’s a farmer. Early to bed, early to rise and all that stuff. After I’m sure he’s soundly snoozing, I’ll sneak down the ladder, exit the barn, and make my way back to the house, where I hope everyone will be sleeping. Then I’ll slip upstairs and accept Katy’s kind offer of a nice warm bed. In the meantime, I’m trying to be quiet as a mouse, but thinking about mice makes me uneasy. Where are all those barn cats anyway? I’m just obsessing over the possibility of a creepy critter crawling over me—which would probably elicit a scream—when I hear the sound of the latch and see the light from another lantern as the door squeaks open. “Katy,” Zach says with surprise. “What are you doing out here?” “I—uh—just thought I’d check on you and Molly,” she says a bit nervously. “What time is it?” he asks.
