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She’d know the reason immediately. So would Jonah. One question, and the whole family would have their fears about him confirmed.

So he’d stick to ibuprofen for now.

“You’re thinking very hard,” Leo observed. “You’ll strain something.”

“I’m making a shopping list.” Nate found the pad by the coffee maker and wrote painkillers under various other items. Then, after a moment, he added screws. A few other things he added only mentally.

He finished his coffee. “I’m going into town to get some stuff.”

“You went into town two days ago.”

“Yes, but I’m planning something for tonight, and I need supplies.”

Leo’s head tilted. “What are you planning?”

“You’ll see.”

The drive into town took fifteen minutes and Nate put his sunglasses on after the first bend. He walked into the hardware store with them too.

Diane looked at him over her reading glasses. “Late night?”

“Long week.”

He bought what was on the list, and then he bought things that weren’t. An outdoor extension cord. A box of café lights. Some lanterns. Diane rang it all up. “Doing something with the porch?”

“Something like that.”

“Hm,” she hummed. She was probably going to carry that piece of gossip into the diner tonight.

That was fine. Let them speculate. Nobody in this town was going to guess what Nate planned.

Nate had almost made it home when he saw the truck.

It sat on the shoulder just past the crooked oak, right at the corner of the property. An old pickup, tan or gold under the road dust, nobody Nate knew. As he slowed, its engine turned over. It pulled onto the road, unhurried, and drove away in the other direction.

Nate watched it go in the mirror.

Huh.

I hear a car sometimes at night, Leo had said. Nate had waved it off — he’d been a little busy being accused of harboring a secret paramour.

It was harder to wave off now.

Maybe it was some fan of the channel. The old men at the diner had mentioned people driving out to look at the famous haunted house.

Annoying, yes, but probably harmless.

Probably.

Leo watched him carry his purchases into the house. “What’s in the boxes?”

“Supplies.”

“What kind of supplies?”

“Just a few things I need.” Nate looked at Leo. “I need the yard to myself this afternoon.”

“To yourself?” Leo’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”