Chapter 4
Danny and Eve drive back to New York. They map through national parks and stop at trailheads, and they sleep in cabins and drink their coffee looking out at the trees.
In the Great Smoky Mountains, they hike to the top of a peak and crest through a blanket of fog.
It spreads silky and silver beneath them.
Up above, everything is silent. It’s the closest approximation to what Eve as a child thought heaven might look like.
Eve climbs onto a tree stump and puts her hands on her hips.
She’s wearing running shorts; a quarter zip and a vest. Danny stands on the ground beside her and leans his head against her hip.
She looks down at him and sees the breath pass between his lips as he takes it in—the grand sweep of heaven.
She stretches her hand toward him. He takes it.
“Now this?” she says.
“A cathedral.”