I moved to sit next to him too. “He’s the best.”
Max laughed, making his shoulders shake a bit.
“And how about your mom, is she good to you?”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Is she the one who told you about your Uncle Alec?”
How did he know that? I tilted my head to check his expression. “Yeah, how did you know?”
His fingers tapped against his knee. “Just a thought.”
“How old are you, Rook?”
“Nine.”
Max stretched his legs out, leaning against the shelf. “You give much thought to what you’ll do once you get old enough?”
I shrugged. “Probably work the orchard, like my dad.”
Max seemed to think it over, then he pulled out a pen from his pocket and a piece of paper, and wrote something down. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t see it. But once he was finished, he folded it up tight and turned toward me.
“I need you to give this to your dad when he’s awake enough to understand.”
I carefully took the note and started to open it, but Max put his hand over mine.
“Only your dad.”
“But what if he doesn’t?—”
Max shook his head and held firmer to my hand. “He will.”
Just then I heard my mom calling for me from the top of the cellar. Iturned to look in that direction, but by the time I turned back around, I saw Max moving back toward the hatch.
“Wait, where are you going? Don’t you want to see my dad?”
Max gave me a quick wave, before shaking his head. “Not this time, but be sure he gets that note. Okay?”
He lifted the hatch and started climbing down into the tunnel, and before I could say anything else, he’d closed it and disappeared from view.