Lives We Lost,The Read Online Free PDF Page B

cabinets. Who knew what supplies they’d still have on the mainland?
    I set it all in front of the fridge, where I’d be able to grab it quickly as soon as the weather cleared up enough that we could safely take the ferry across the strait. Leo thought he’d be able to get it going, after watching Mark start it up before. Until then, the vaccine would be safer here than anywhere else in town, with the specially calibrated fridge and modern generator behind the unbreakable windows and the door that had already stood up to the gang’s prying.
    In the middle of the counter where anyone would notice them I placed the papers onto which I’d copied all of Dad’s notes about creating the vaccine. I’d give the keys to Tessa when I left. If we failed, I didn’t want Dad’s work to be completely lost.
    There were so many things he hadn’t told me. He should have been prepared for the worst, for the possibility that he might not always be here.
    He probably wouldn’t have thought I could handle this. He would have said to wait, like Nell had. And he might have been right. The roads could be so bad Gav and I would get stuck. We could run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. We could get held up, like Leo said, because all people would see was a couple of teenagers with resources they wanted.
    But bigger than those doubts was the feeling that had been swelling inside me since I’d watched Nell turn away. That if I didn’t do something now and we lost the vaccine, I’d spend the rest of my life regretting it.
four
    The last things I packed in the SUV were two bags of sidewalk salt, which I thought to check the garage for after Meredith complained about the slippery front step.
    The bags weighed forty pounds a piece. Despite the chill in the air, I was sweating under my coat by the time I’d carried them to the clear area by the door. But I’d also found a jug of winter windshield-wiper fluid, so I figured the effort had been worth it. I’d paused to stretch my arms when Leo stepped through the doorway.
    “Hey,” he said. “Meredith said you were out here. Looking for salt?”
“Yep,” I said, nudging one of the bags with my foot.
“Ah!” he said. “That kind of salt.”
The silence that followed felt awkward. I looked at him, and he looked back at me, his expression so serious my heart skipped. Before I could wonder why, he dropped his gaze.
“You want help bringing those to the SUV? They’re for the trip, I guess?”
“Thanks,” I said. “Grab one and we’re good.”
I hefted the first bag onto my shoulder and trudged along the snowy driveway. Flakes whirled around us.
“You’re ready to go?” Leo asked as we shoved the bags into the back of the SUV.
“Completely,” I said. He followed me as I headed back for the wiper fluid. “All we need now is a break in the weather.”
We ducked into the garage.
“Kaelyn,” Leo said. When I turned, he opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times, as if he’d forgotten what he’d wanted to say. Then he smiled crookedly.
“You wouldn’t believe how much I missed you when you left for Toronto, all those years back.”
“Please,” I said. “I bet it wasn’t half as much as I missed you. You still had a gazillion other friends here, at least.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But it wasn’t the same. You were the only one I knew really wanted me around.”
“What are you talking about? Everyone liked you.”
“Sure, they liked me,” he said, and hesitated. “But they never stopped seeing this.” He pointed to his face, and I knew he meant the shape of his eyes, the olive tone of his skin. “They never forgot I was adopted, different, not a real islander. I knew they couldn’t help it, so I acted like I didn’t notice. But with you I didn’t have to act. You didn’t judge me by where I was born.”
He’d always seemed so happy. I’d never known he’d felt that way about the rest of the kids, the whole time we were growing up. But he was probably