“Yeah.” He sounds thoughtful about it. “Although it was different then. Both ways. But still. That’s not how these kids see me, not really, and I … it’s okay that they don’t. Come through here.”

He pulls a stand of bushes at the side of the trail open for her, revealing the short distance to the neat little clearing beyond. It’s obvious that he’d spent some time getting rid of brush and branches and checking the ground underfoot to make sure it was ready.