Chapter 33Late in the afternoon, Henley stepped outside of the cabin, onto the veranda. It was a warm and dry day, temperature reaching the sixties, the air smelling of pines and black dirt. He’d been reading on the couch, being generally lazy and content.
The screen door shut behind him, and at the sound of it, Ciccio came trotting up to him with a branch in his powerful jaw. “You want to play, huh?” Henley tried to wrestle the stick out of Ciccio’s clenched teeth, but it was no use. Older or not, Ciccio’s strength was impressive, and he’d been doing better these days, his appetite and curiosity slowly returning. The dog ran off again, back to Mason.
But Mason didn’t pay Ciccio any mind. Dressed in a tight gray T-shirt and dark blue jeans, looking like a dream to Henley, Mason stood abo
