The farmhouse loomed over Nolan as he stepped out of Rachel's Jeep Cherokee. He paused at the edge of the driveway, eyes flicking toward the kitchen window. He was back in August, in darkness, standing and watching as Isaac...

He looked to Nora as she hopped out of the passenger seat. She wrung her hands and stared up at the house. He hesitated, then held out his hand. She took it.

Words couldn't describe how it felt to have Nora's hand in his again. To talk to her, laugh with her, to just be around her. In the lobby, the moment she grinned and joked in that way of hers, it was as though the ache inside him had crumbled.

She swallowed. "I haven't been inside yet," she said.

He squeezed her hand. "We're here," he murmured. A stupid thing to say? He wasn't sure.

"That we are," Rachel said, sidling next to them. She squinted up at the house. "We'll get you out of here as quickly as possible, okay?" She paused. "Or, if you want to take your time, that's okay, too. Whatever you're most comfortable with."

"Thanks, Rachel."

Rachel kissed the top of Nora's head. "Anything for you, favorite niece."

Andy's Jeep zoomed down the street and pulled to a noisy stop in the driveway. Nolan was honestly shocked he hadn't gotten there first.

"I come bearing gifts!" Andy called, hopping out of the Jeep. He opened the backseat door—the back was bursting with boxes.

Nora grinned. "Thanks, Candy Cane."

"No idea if you'll need all of this," he said. "But here they are. We could make a fort with the extras." His eyes widened. "Damn. That would have been fun to film for the music video." He faltered, realizing what he'd said. "Shit. Sorry."

"No, you're right," Nora said. "It would have."

"I finished it," Nolan said.

"What?" she asked.

"The music video. I finished it."

"Holy shit, man!"

Nora beamed. "Can we watch it?" she asked.

"Are you sure you want...?"

"Of course!" She grinned. "Viewing party after we finish packing?"

He nodded. "Sure."

While they waited for Nathan to arrive with Max and Erin, they emptied Andy's car of cardboard boxes. They didn't carry them inside, not yet, but brought them up to the porch and set them by the front door. Nolan did his best not to hover over Nora as she moved up and down the driveway. They had made up, yes, but he was still nervous that if he pushed too hard, she'd change her mind.

He was halfway back to the Jeep when Nathan arrived, parking his van on the side of the road. It was time.

"Who's ready to move some furniture?" Max shouted as he jumped from the backseat and bounded toward them.

"Oh, I'm so ready," Nora said.

Max squeezed her shoulder.

"After, we're having a viewing party," Andy announced.

"A viewing party?" Erin asked. She shut the van door behind her. "Of what?"

"Nolan finished the music video."

Erin gasped. "Oh, yay!"

Nathan joined them, and then it was time to go inside. Max went inside first, then Andy, then Erin, each carrying a couple of boxes into the foyer. Nora hovered in the entryway. She looked over her shoulder, at Nolan, and held out her hand. He took it in his, thumb automatically rubbing hers. She faced the door again.

He waited patiently and silently for her to pass over the threshold. He just stood there and held her hand—letting her know he was there and he wasn't leaving. What else could he do?

Rachel rubbed her shoulder and Nathan murmured an encouraging, "It's okay, Nora. Take your time."

Nora nodded and smiled at them all. She closed her eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and took a step forward.

There was an emptiness to the house as they headed to Nora's bedroom. However, it wasn't entirely somber. No, there was a relief, there, too. The walls could breathe again—the pain, the danger, was gone.

There wasn't much to move. As Nora explained, Rachel had already grabbed the smaller essentials. The goal wasn't to move out the entire house; they were just taking whatever Nora wanted to keep when moving on to her next phase of life.

First up: Nora's mattress and bed frame. While Rachel and Nathan dragged the mattress downstairs, Nora, Nolan, and Max knelt in front of the frame.

"Do we have an Allen wrench?" Max asked.

Nora scrunched her face. "Uh..."

"I'll go look." He hopped to his feet. "Be right back."

She peered around her room as he disappeared into the hall.

"You okay?" Nolan asked.

She nodded. "I didn't think I would be, but I am," she said. She smiled. "I guess we should work on something else, huh?"

"Guess so."

She laughed, stood, and held out her hand. He grabbed it and allowed her to tug him to his feet.

They joined Erin and Andy at the walls, plucking tacks and tugging down posters. Andy left to grab a bag for the tacks, but, while they were waiting, they just set whatever they had on the dresser.

"I'm not gonna keep this," Nora said, patting the dresser. "You know anyone who needs one?"

"You could put it on the church's Facebook page," Erin suggested.

"Oooh, good idea!"

Nora took her phone out of her pocket. Nolan finished setting a stack of photos into a half-filled box and joined her.

"Hmm." She scrunched her face and took a step back. "Ah, perfect."

"You should be a professional photographer," Nolan said as she pressed her thumb onto the touch pad and took a hundred pictures—literally.

She grinned. "You know me so well, Nol."

Nol. He smiled.

"Nora!"

They turned as Max and Andy burst into the room. Nolan's eyebrows rose. Neither of them had returned with what they'd been looking for.

"We found something," Max said.

"I found—"

"Andy found something." He rolled his eyes. "We think you'll want to see this."

"What is it?" Nora asked.

He gestured with his head for her to follow him. "Come on."

She pocketed her phone.

Their discovery was the attic entryway, set just over the landing. The door had been opened, wooden stairs just reaching the floor.

Nora tensed. "The attic?"

"Have you ever been up there?" Andy asked.

She shook her head. "My dad...he...he always said it was off limits."

"Well, it's not off limits anymore," he said. He started up the steps.

Her fingers brushed the wooden rail. She bit her lip and began her ascent.

The attic was just like any other unfinished attic Nolan had seen. Wooden floor, wooden walls. Dust—lots of dust. But the room wasn't empty. Boxes scattered the area. Nora's eyebrows creased as she turned, taking it all in. She hadn't known any of this was here—he could see it in her eyes.

What were in these boxes that Isaac hadn't wanted her to see?

She stepped up to the first available box and ripped off the tape. As she pulled open the tabs, it was all he could do not to peer over her shoulder and peek at what was inside.

She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. When she turned, her face was tear-stained.

Nolan didn't think. He just wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. She sniffled, clinging to his shirt. "He told me it was all gone," she cried. "He lied to me."

He peered into the box. Most of it was concealed, but from what he could see, it was a box of framed photographs.

"What did he say was gone?" Erin asked softly, hesitantly.

Nora pulled away from Nolan, wiping her eyes. She returned to the box and pulled out one of the photographs. Her smile was trembling as she touched the photo with shaking fingers. "My mom's things," she said. She looked up. "He told me...he told me it hurt too much and it was all gone forever."

She turned the photo toward Nolan. A woman hugged a little girl. Both of their faces were alight with laughter. "This is my mom," she said. "This is my mom."

"What's going on up there?" Rachel called from the bottom of the stairs. "You guys having an adventure and not inviting us? Rude!"

Nolan returned to the stairs. He looked over his shoulder, and his heart soared as Nora hugged the photo to her chest. "We'll need to make more than one trip," he said.

✝

"You know, some people decide to have these really elaborate viewing parties with huge screens and red carpets," Andy said, "but they've got nothing on us."

Nolan chuckled and set his laptop on the coffee table. All around him, his loved ones crowded. Nora sat at his side, her phone in hand. Her phone held Willow. Max had claimed his other side. Andy, Caleb, Sam, Greg, Nathan, and Rachel were all piled on the couch, layering themselves between the cushions, the arms, and the back.

They didn't have an HDMI cable, and no one was in the mood to go buy one so they could put the video on the TV. So, here they were.

"Babe, can you tilt me a bit?" Willow asked. "I can only see the top of the laptop screen."

Nora adjusted her phone.

"Thank you!"

Nolan full-screened the video and then pressed Pause. "Is everyone ready?" he asked.

"Hell yeah!" Andy cheered.

"Swear jar!" Willow shouted.

"My money is worthless to you right now, so ha!" Andy yelled back. Everyone laughed.

"Okay," Nolan said. His finger hovered on the mouse pad. "Pressing Play in three, two, one."

He pressed Play.

For the next three and a half minutes, they were enraptured by the project they'd worked so hard on. There were some oohs, some ahs, some, "Holy shits," some "Swear jars." Nolan smiled into his fist as he looked around at them all. There nerves that had clenched his stomach released. They liked it.

"Holy crap, Nolan, that was amazing," Nora squealed. She gripped his arm, bouncing up and down on the floor.

"Whiplash!" Willow cried.

"Oop, sorry." Not all that sorry, it seemed, because the next thing Nolan knew, she was squealing and throwing her arms around him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's gorgeous! Amazing! I love it so much!"

He grinned and hugged her back. "I'm glad."

"Yo, we're gonna make another one of these, eh, Garner?" Andy asked. "Fill up that portfolio?"

She smiled. "If you guys are up for it."

They cheered.

"Let's watch it again," Rachel said.

"Yes, again!" Nathan said. He clapped his hands once, as though in an attempt to summon the video to begin again.

"I concur!" Caleb shouted.

Everyone turned toward him, eyebrows raised.

"He saw my homework," Greg explained.

"Oh."

Nolan restarted the video. They watched it once, twice, three times, and then they moved on to the unedited footage, laughing at each screw up and savoring each moment they'd shared over the summer.

After opening the third unedited clip, he looked to his left and caught Nora's gaze. She smiled.

They weren't done healing. Maybe they had just begun. But as she turned her attention to the screen, he knew they would be okay.

The morning had arrived.