“Because the next Saturday, we asked to go back, and you said the bridge area was unsafe.”

“I was right.”

“I know,” he said.

“Now I know.”

The boys had decided that if they described their Saturdays as ordinary visits, their mothers would not worry.

As the project expanded, they started helping on Friday evenings too, carrying supplies before the weekend rush.

Eventually they volunteered through the night because Walter needed help moving donated equipment after a storm warning.

“It was never supposed to be secret for this long,” Toby murmured.