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minutes later, Noah had loosened up somewhat. He’d gotten good at ignoring everything other than the simple act of running, at turning his thoughts off all the way.
    As they approached the park, Katie let out a loud whoop, startling him out of his tentative calm. She bent forward dramatically, stretching and feigning exhaustion. Or possibly not feigning at all. Her face was pink and she gasped for breath.
    Noah went through his usual cool-down routine, walking in circles, gradually slowing his pace, stretching his back. The sun had fallen below the horizon, but the sky still held the last bits of light, forming a dark silhouette along the tops of the trees. Crickets chirped their summer song, luring him further into calmness.
    Noises over in the playground attracted his attention. Katie grabbed hold of the merry-go-round, pushing it in a circle as she ran around the outside. When she’d picked up speed, she hopped on then sprawled on her back, feet toward the center, head on the outside edge. Her hair blew over the side, flying behind her.
    Noah stood there, staring. What he really wanted to do was walk directly to his Tahoe SUV and drive home. But there were no other vehicles in the parking lot, so it appeared Katie might need a ride. He hadn’t been raised to leave a woman alone in a park at sundown.
    He took his time reaching the playground area, watching her spin as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He couldn’t relate at all to the concept.
    “You’re slowing down,” he said when he reached the moving merry-go-round.
    She laughed as she whirled past, then pulled herself up with her good arm and stuck out a foot to stop. Standing, she eyed him, her smile fading. “I don’t suppose you want to go for a ride?” She started running in a circle again, jumped on the same way she had before, and was lying down before Noah could blink.
    He couldn’t imagine himself running wild like that. He took a step back, waiting for her to slow down.
    “Actually, I came over here to ask if you want a ride home.”
    She didn’t answer right away. When the thing had nearly stopped spinning and Noah’s patience had just about run out, she sat up.
    “No, thanks. I’m going to go for a few more spins and then I’ll walk home.”
    “You were ready to collapse ten minutes ago. You’ve got a broken wrist. You shouldn’t push yourself anymore.”
    “You sound like a doctor.”
    The way she said it made it obvious that it wasn’t a compliment. Noah wondered why he was wasting his time.
    “Have it your way. Good night.” He headed to the parking lot, thankful, after all, that she’d turned him down and he could drive home alone.
    * * *
    L ATER THAT NIGHT , the house was so quiet, Katie thought she might climb the walls. Her dad and stepmom had gone to bed a few hours earlier. She’d flipped through a couple hundred channels on satellite TV and had found nothing that held her interest for longer than a minute. Then she’d dropped by Lindsey and Zach’s house, next door, but it was clear they wanted to go to bed, so she left.
    She sat at the kitchen table tapping her fingers on the surface. Seconds later she jumped up and opened the refrigerator, but she didn’t see anything appealing in there. Remembering she’d left her laptop in the living room earlier, she retrieved it and returned to the kitchen table, plugging it into the phone outlet.
    When she had a connection, she opened her browser and checked all her usual sites—mostly bulletin boards for extreme sports enthusiasts—cursing the pokiness of dial-up internet. She wasn’t tempted to participate in any online discussions, so she headed to her in-box and sifted through her emails, answering a couple of them. She’d never thought about how many of her emails were work-related before. Now that she was on leave, her traffic had slowed way down—just when she needed interaction and conversation the most.
    Katie grabbed a box of fish-shaped crackers from the