All those years, from the time I was ten and Will was fourteen, we were part of each other’s story. His father, Ellis Flood, was Hap’s closest friend, and so we were often thrown together. But even if that hadn’t been the case, in a small town like Mendocino, the kids ran in packs, building driftwood forts on Portuguese Beach, wandering through the woods behind Jackson Street, or playing flashlight tag out on the bluffs on moonless nights. Two more in our gang were Caleb and Jenny Ford, twins who had been living alone with their dad since their mother ran off years before for a man, wanting a
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