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BEFORE THE SUPERFLU, SEEING THE CABIN WAS a relief. It meant the three-ish hour drive from Philly—depending on traffic—was over and we could get out and stretch. Seeing it now just brings fresh anxiety.

“Go ahead,” Niki says, probably sensing the worry of what—or who—I’ll find in the cabin. “I’ll give you five minutes. Newt, stay.”

Beside her, Newt sits and waits patiently until she hands him a few Cheerios from her jacket pocket, which he munches loudly. His obedience training has gone well the past few weeks, especially after we learned stale Cheerios are considered a high-value treat in Newt’s mind.

I take a deep breath and walk up the driveway to the cabin.

The door is locked when I reach for it, which is odd because I left it unlocked when I followed after Andrew. My body starts to buzz at the thought. Someone else is in there, and either it’s Andrew, or I’m so desperate for it to be him my body refuses to believe any other possibility. Because this isn’t the buzz of fear or anxiety anymore, it’s excitement and anticipation.

Instead of knocking, I grab the spare key that’s still hidden in the compartment under Holly the Gnome’s toadstool, and my heart flutters again at the neon turtle next to it.

After I unlock the door, just for a second, I worry I’ve broken into the wrong cabin. But then I see the gun pointing at me.

And the boy holding it.

“See?” he asks, his voice full of frustration. “How do you like it?”

I laugh, and my chest feels like either it’s about to burst or I’m about to crumble into dust. Something otherworldly and uncontainable. Hearing him make a joke so easily—after not seeing me for such a long time—it means maybe things could be okay with us.

He sets the rifle down and we close the gap between us in half a second. His arms around me, mine around him. Holding tight, as though we’re trying to fuse ourselves together. It’s familiar and lovely.

“I’ve been planning that bit for months,” he says. “Just so you know.”

“Was it worth it?” I ask.

“No. But every other part of this is.” He leans away but keeps his arms wrapped around me. His smile drops down into a look of uncertainty. He wants to ask about Fort Caroline.

I shake my head. “It’s a long story, but I didn’t . . . he’s dead and I don’t think Fort Caroline is going to be the way it was, but I had nothing to do with it, in the end. You were right. I’m sorry. You were always right, about the Keys and about the revenge mission, and I never should have left you. I should have been open to creating a new family with everyone, but I couldn’t.”

“You were scared.” He kisses me, holding my face in his hands. “It’s okay. You’re allowed to be scared.”

“I know, but I shouldn’t have let that get in the way.”

“It’s okay.” He kisses me again. “You’re here.”

My eyes return to the walls. From where I stand, the kitchen looks bigger. The walls aren’t painted and instead have dark, minimalist gray wallpaper plastered over them.

“What did you do to my house?”

“Shhh.” He kisses me. “Don’t worry about that now.”

I laugh against his lips and pick him up, so he wraps his legs around my middle.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Don’t worry about that now either.” A short bark from behind us makes him startle in my arms and he pulls away from me. Newt stands in the doorway, his tail waving slowly behind him.

“Oh yeah,” I say. “This is Newt.”

Andrew gasps and drops down off me. “I love him!” Newt, sensing Andrew’s energy, bounds into the cabin and slams his backside into him, immediately demanding pets.

Then Niki appears in the doorway. “I gave you enough time. Andrew, where the hell is my brother? Hi. Nice to see you again.”

“Oh, hey, Niki.” His cheeks turn red as he looks over to me like I’m going to help him out. “He’s . . . nearby. There’s a farm through the woods they’re all staying at. Really nice place, I think you’re going to love it.”

Her jaw goes tight. “How far?”

“Ten miles?”

She slumps. “More walking.”

“There’s an ATV?” Andrew tries. I have no idea where he got an ATV from. Maybe he’s made an alliance with this farm and doesn’t have to pay Howard’s land tax. Then he looks over at me. “But I do think we should walk. We have some stuff I’ve got to bring you up to speed on. Newt, wanna go for walkies?”

But Newt turns away from him and hops up onto the couch in the living room.

Andrew shakes his head. “I thought we had something, Newt.”

“We do have to talk,” I say. Most of it is going to be me apologizing for not letting anyone in, and for not listening to him about going to Fort Caroline. But I want to tell him what happened there, and of course I have to tell him about Henri. My tone seems to be making Andrew anxious, so I try something else to help him understand. “But I do want to see the Kid, Jamar, and Taylor. I missed them a lot.”

Andrew seems to relax, and he puts his hands to my cheeks, smiling again. And that’s how I know he understands what I’m telling him. That he was right. These people are our family.

“They missed you, too.”

“Save all this for the walk,” Niki says, without hiding her annoyance.

After coaxing Newt off the couch, Andrew leads us around back to the new pathway. Niki starts marching down the dirt road and Andrew takes my hand, linking my fingers with his. Then he kisses me on the cheek.

“Welcome home.”

“It’s good to be back.”

The next night is our first night in the house alone together—a little over a year since we left it. I make us dinner and after we eat, we sit on the back deck watching the fireflies by the low light of a kerosene lantern. Newt snores under the table, lying against Andrew’s leg. I take the faded green raffle ticket out of my pocket and put it on the table in front of him.

He grins and takes it, putting it into his own pocket. “Okay. Which movie?”

“Not a movie,” I say. I go inside and grab the last book Niki and I found on our journey to the cabin. A Second Chance at Forever.

I hand it to him, but he shakes his head. “No, this is her masterpiece—seriously, it’s amazing. I won’t paraphrase a word of it.” He turns up the lantern a bit and adjusts his chair. Beneath him, Newt grumbles, then gets up and lies down by the stairs.

Andrew motions for me to sit down and he props his legs up on mine while tilting the book into the lantern light. He begins to read.