Chapter 69

“Oh. You’re here already.”

“You are, too.” Archie stood up out of the water.

“And you’re naked.”

“Yeah.” He covered himself with both hands. “Sorry. Don’t be scared.”

“Scared?”

“I would have put something on before you got here…if I’d had time. What’s that?” Archie had to move one hand to point. He’d moved both, and also came closer

“Nothing.” I had never shown him where the bullet had sliced its way into my flesh back when he was in Virginia. I had never even told him about it.

“It’s something.” Archie touched the spot, not really on the shoulder, just a fraction of an inch to the left of my heart, actually. “Does it hurt?”

“No.”

“You didn’t want me to see it.”

“No.”

“The story behind it is scary, I bet.”

“Yes.”