I made a snap decision and called my students for the week, apologized for canceling their classes, and informed them that I had an emergency. I packed enough clothes for a few days and left the house at six o’clock the next morning.
* * * *
The lake cabin had been where Joey and I first made love. He didn’t just share it with anybody. In fact, he’d told me in a moment of rare sharing that I was the only person he’d ever let stay over. It was special to him in a way that I still didn’t understand, and maybe it was time I did.
It took four hours of driving north to get to the cabin. Tucked away at the end of a long gravel road, it looked cozy in the rustic setting. I parked next to Joey’s SUV and got out. It was a little after ten o’clock, and I stretched to pop my spine.