Credence

Jake compliments Tiernan for the ease with which she is picking up fishing. Tiernan is naturally competitive, which is a Van der Berg trait. Jake says that Tiernan is one of the Van der Bergs now, making Tiernan feel a sense of belonging. As Jake teaches Tiernan how to throw the line, he comes up close to her. Affected by his physical presence, Tiernan swims away. She hides in the cave behind the waterfall and chides herself for her attraction to Jake. She feels that she is desperate for attention, which makes her feelings for Jake muddled. Tiernan masturbates in the cave. She is interrupted by shouting. Cici appears on the scene, her nose bleeding. Kaleb comes up behind her, which suggests that he may have hit Cici. Tiernan swims towards Noah, who asks her to join him for an impromptu race in town. Noah will be participating in the race.

At the promotional stall for Van der Berg Extreme at the race site, Noah rearranges Tiernan’s clothes so that her stomach is bared, in order to attract more customers to their stall. This works. As the race gets underway, Tiernan gets caught up in the contest, cheering for Noah. She is happy when he wins, but she notes that Jake barely compliments his son. Jake tells Noah that Motocross racing is not a viable long-term career option because racers always end up injured. Tiernan feels that Jake is too controlling of Noah.

At the end of the race celebration, Cici meets Tiernan and tells her that she caused her own injury in the cave. Cici dances with Tiernan in a performative way, while Kaleb watches Tiernan intensely. Jake asks the young women to stop dancing as they are drawing too much male attention, and he threatens to spank Tiernan if she does it again. Tiernan feels annoyed at Jake’s attempts to control her sexuality. Her anger at Jake’s double standards grows when women crowd into the truck, obviously to go home with the Van der Berg men. Jake tells Tiernan that he and his sons can have sex with women since they are all unclaimed. Tiernan, on the other hand, has been claimed by Jake. Tiernan says that this implies that Jake has a sexual interest in her. While Noah laughs at Tiernan’s statement, Jake is dumfounded.

Tiernan wakes up from a nightmare to the sounds of Noah and Kaleb having sex in their respective rooms. She feels lonely and jealous of their freedom. She encounters Jake in the downstairs hall. It is obvious that Jake spent the night alone. Tiernan makes herself and Jake a snack. Jake comes close to Tiernan and asks her why she ran away from him at the lake. Tiernan is flustered. Jake tells Tiernan that she should leave the peak, as everyone in the house is inappropriately attracted to her. Tiernan reminds Jake that he had told her that the ranch was her home. Jake kisses Tiernan. She asks him to take her to bed. Jake tells her that this would not be right, as he is her uncle. He makes Tiernan feel his erection and says, “this is what you’re doing to me, Tiernan. It’s not right” (178).

Tiernan says that Jake is not her uncle by blood and has been a stranger all her life. Jake breaks away from Tiernan, saying that she is vulnerable because of her parents’ death, and he is desperate for a woman’s presence. Getting together for these reasons would be wrong. He asks Tiernan to focus on herself and take joy in life—she should not throw away her life because of her parents’ neglect. Tiernan begins to cry and Jake hugs her. He tells her that he asked her to stay away from the local guys as she may make wrong choices in her grief. Jake teases her to dress more appropriately around the house during the winter so as to not tempt him and the others.

Noah asks Tiernan if she wants to get cheeseburgers. Tiernan gets in the truck and is surprised to find Kaleb get in, too, gesturing to her to scoot in the middle. Tiernan reflects to herself on what happened between her and Jake the previous night and his half-serious warning about being sequestered with the men all winter. Noah is forced to pull to an abrupt stop when a car stops in front of the truck. As Tiernan is not wearing a seatbelt, she lurches to the front. Kaleb shoots out his arm to protect her. The car drives off. At the drive-in burger joint, a girl flirts with Kaleb. He ignores her, and Noah makes a nasty joke at the girl’s expense. She flings Coke at Noah. Kaleb pulls Tiernan into his lap because the Coke landed where she was sitting. Tiernan is puzzled at Kaleb’s alternately punishing and protective attitude towards her.

Back at the ranch, Tiernan gets a call from Mirai. Her parents’ funeral is the next day. Tiernan asks Mirai to book her a ticket to LA. When she tells Jake about her plans to leave, he states that he knows that she is not coming back. Tiernan says that she is not sure about her next steps.

In LA, Mirai tells Tiernan that she offered to book tickets for Jake and his sons, too, but Jake refused. Tiernan finds herself missing Jake, Noah, and Kaleb. She feels like an impostor in LA. Mirai tells Tiernan that her childhood night terrors quelled when Mirai started to sleep in the same bed as her. All Tiernan had wanted was affection and the feeling of being home. Mirai says that being at home is a feeling of safety, rather than a physical place. Mirai’s words stick in Tiernan’s head.

At the funeral, Tiernan silently mourns her parents. She hates them for not even leaving her a suicide note and for neglecting her all their lives. Above all, she hates herself for not telling them how she felt when they were alive.

Noah is miserable at the ranch and feels that he cannot spend another day with just his father and Kaleb. He wants to leave Colorado itself in the middle of the night. He admits to himself that he misses Tiernan, just like Jake and Kaleb do. Noah asks Jake to go and get Tiernan, but Jake says that he cannot force Tiernan to do anything. Noah is sure that Tiernan will not return on her own given the way he and the others treated her. Just then, they hear the floorboards above creak. Tiernan comes into the kitchen and tells them that she arrived last night. She assigns everyone chores.

Noah finishes his work and asks Tiernan to get drunk with him and Kaleb. Jake asks everyone to finish dinner at the table first, “like a family” (206). Noah horses around with Tiernan. When Jake makes a remark, warning Tiernan about an unplanned pregnancy, Tiernan tells him that she is well aware of birth control. Besides, she does not plan to have children or get married before she has had three boyfriends. Her mother used to say that no woman should marry before three relationships. The first would be driven by lust, the second by a desire to learn about oneself and one’s partner, and then one would arrive at the third “L”: love. Noah notes with amusement that Jake is struck dumb by Tiernan’s story. He questions whether “you think your mother is the one to listen to” (209). Tiernan counters by saying that her mother may have been a terrible parent, but this does not mean all her advice was useless. When Tiernan says that she will not have an opportunity to date anyway, since they will soon be snowed in for months, Noah sarcastically notes to himself that Tiernan is in no sexual danger from him and his family.

On Tiernan’s 18th birthday, Noah gifts her a T-shirt, Jake gives her a bow and arrow set, while Kaleb gives her a leather belt which he has crafted. Noah darkly jokes that Kaleb intends the belt as a handcuff for Tiernan. When Tiernan and Noah are alone, he confides in her that, unknown to Jake, his mother calls him sometimes to ask him to wire her money in prison. Noah knows that his mother is using him but is happy about the contact. Tiernan feels a sense of kinship with Noah.

Tiernan dresses up in an expensive dress and designer Louboutin shoes for her birthday dinner at a restaurant. She feels happy after a long time, since Mirai is taking care of all of her affairs back in LA. The evening takes a turn for the worse after Jake, Noah, and Tiernan head into the bar next to the restaurant. A bachelorette party pulls in for a dance. Soon, the women are replaced by a group of men led by Terrance Holcomb, trying to cut Tiernan off from Jake and the others. Terrance tries to dance with Tiernan by force and tells her that the Van der Bergs only want her so that they can control her fortune. Kaleb pulls Terrance off Tiernan and smashes him against the jukebox. A fight breaks out, and Tiernan and the Van der Bergs flee with Terrance and his gang on their heels. Tiernan is afraid that the cops may arrest Kaleb for starting the fight. Noah laughs because it has begun to snow, and they will be inaccessible to even the cops soon.