He looked out at the driveway, where the police cruiser’s tire tracks still showed in the soft gravel.

“I just need a few days to get everything sorted out with her,” he said.

Benji came out of his bedroom at half past two, dragging his stuffed green dinosaur by its tail.

Clay knelt on the rug beside the coffee table and got out the wooden building blocks.

“Look at this tower, buddy,” Clay said, piling three pine blocks on top of each other.

“We’re going to go camping out at Keystone Lake this weekend, just the two of us.”