being near him made her nervous. What if somebody stepped on a stick and it made a loud crack? Would Matt start screaming? Would he come after Abby like she was the enemy?
Matt caught her looking at him. âOkay, donât kill me,â he said, grinning. âBut what wasyour name again? Anders told me, but my short-term memory is on the fritz these days. Itâs the pills the doc makes me take.â
âItâs Abââ
Abby started to say her name was Abby, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the tingling near the spot on her hand where the fox had bitten her.
âItâs Abigail,â she finished.
âIt is?â Anders looked confused. âI thought you saidââ
Abby nodded. âItâs Abigail. My mom and dad call me Abby sometimes. Abbyâs like my childhood nickname.â
Matt nodded. âMy folks used to call me Mattie. Got to a point where it drove me nuts.â
The hives didnât look like what Abby had expected. Sheâd imagined lumpy domes, like oversize waspsâ nests, but instead Mattâs beehives were more like file boxes piled one on top of another. As they got closer, Abby could hear the buzzing from inside the hives. She glanced anxiously at Matt. âAre you going to open the hives up?â
Matt laughed. âNot without a smoker and protective gear. Nah, I just wanted to hear âem. This is a strange time of year for bees. Most of the flowers have stopped blooming, and their workâs about done. But theyâre not quite down for winter. I like to check in with them every few days, just to make sure everythingâs cool.â
The three of them stood at a distance from the hives and listened. âBees have an amazing way of communicating with each other,â Matt told Abby. âThey dance. They dance to tell each other where the food is, and whether or not itâs good food, how much there is. Who knows what theyâre in there telling each other right now?â
âYouâre not scared of them?â Abby asked, unable to believe that what Anders said was true, that bees didnât make Matt nervous at all.
Matt shook his head. âBees are predictable. Every once in a while thereâs a swarm, but most of the time bees do what theyâre supposed to do, unlike, say, people or horses. You donât know whatâs going to spook a horseââand here he looked at Andersââor when itâs going to happen.â
Anders turned away, and Abby saw him roll his eyes. â Some horses spook,â he told his dad when heâd turned around again. âNervous horses spook. Grandmaâs horses do not spook.â
âSnake shows up in the grass, a horse is going to spook,â Matt argued. âI donât care how steady he is the rest of the time.â
Matt had seemed cheerful and happy only a moment before, but now his expression darkened. Abby looked at Anders, who had his eyes closed, as though he were trying to steady himself.
Abby wished she could think of something to say that would get them back to the dancing bees. She wished standing so close to Matt didnât make her feel uneasy. Most of the adults Abby knew stayed the same all the time. Her mother was always worried, even when she tried to cover it up by acting extra cheerful, and her dad was always bossy in his joke-around way. But Matt seemed to change all the time. One second he was happy-go-lucky, and the next he looked like he might explode.
I think I need to go home , Abby practicedsaying in her head. Or, Sorry, I just remembered I had homework to do! Homework. That was it.
âI bet youâre scared of horses too.â
Matt stood in front of Abby. âI mean, you seem like a reasonable person to me. And reasonable people stay away from horses, am I right?â
There was an edge to Mattâs voice. He was smiling, but his smile wasnât friendly. And although he was looking