Kelvin's car handled well enough on the open road, the engine quieter than Liam expected, the seat comfortable in the way of something that had been broken in properly over time.
He drove with one hand loose on the wheel and let the city fall away behind him.
It did that gradually, the way it always did on this particular route, the buildings spacing themselves further apart without announcing it, the roads widening, the noise and the density of everything dropping by degrees until the air coming through the slightly open window smelled different. Cleaner.
The trees started appearing at the sides of the road, tall and unhurried, and the sky opened up above the car in a way it never quite managed to between buildings.
He turned off onto the narrower road that wound down toward the water and followed it through the trees until the lake house appeared.
