Page 109 of The Summer Swap

“I’ve missed you, too. I should be the one apologizing to you.” She breathed in Hannah’s perfume and felt the strength of her hug. “I should have tried harder to explain how I was feeling.”

“It was my fault. You were struggling and all I did was tell you you’d be fine. I can’t believe I said that.” Hannah sniffed. “I’m going to be a terrible doctor.”

“You’re going to be a brilliant doctor. You were made to be a doctor.” Lily eased away. “But I wasn’t.”

“I know. Maybe I’ve always known that, but I got so used to following a path with you I didn’t know how to walk it alone. I was afraid to walk it alone. I was being selfish. I didn’t want you to give it up.” Hannah gave her a watery smile. “What kind of friend am I?”

“A good one. The best.”

“So can we start again?”

“We don’t need to start again. We’ve been friends forever.”

Hannah blew her nose. “From now on I will always be there for you, even when I don’t understand why you’re doing something. Even when you’re not telling me everything. You can count on me.”

“And you can count on me. And from now on I will be telling you everything.”

“That’s a relief, because I didn’t want to have a sister-in-law who didn’t speak to me.”

Lily felt herself blush. “We haven’t—he hasn’t—”

“But he will. And you will.” Hannah grinned. “And quite right, too. It should have happened long before now. But better late than never, and all that. And now we’ve got all the emotion out of the way and everything is right with the world again, where’s the food?”

Lily couldn’t resist teasing her. “I thought you came to see my paintings?”

“I’ve put in two all-nighters and I can’t remember when I last ate. If I don’t eat, I won’t be able to properly appreciate your genius.”

“There are canapés.”

“Better than nothing. We’ll grab a plate. We can pretend we’re taking them round but secretly stand in a corner and eat the lot. Oh, hi, Todd.” She kept her tone casual as Todd approached. “Just catching up on all the family gossip. I just saw Mom and Dad holding hands in the corner, and I’m not sure if that’s a bit gross or a good thing, so you’d better enlighten me.”

“It’s definitely a good thing.” Todd put his arm around Lily and grinned at his sister. “Good to know you’re speaking to me again.”

“Yes, well, you were making some questionable decisions but you seem to have sorted yourself out thank goodness—” Hannah glanced between him and Lily and shook her head. “You two can’t keep your hands off each other, Mom and Dad are smiling at each other again, and Nanna has fallen in love. There must be something in the air. I’m wondering if I should move to the Cape. Maybe if I stayed here for a while my love life might improve.”

“You’d hate it here,” Todd said. “It’s too quiet for you.”

“Maybe. So what happens now? Are you staying in Nanna’s mystery cottage?”

“For now. And on that topic, I need to steal Lily away because Nanna wanted to talk to us and there’s a local reporter who wants a photo of Lily with her paintings.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, leave me. Go and be important.” But she smiled and gave Lily a push. “See you in a minute. I’m off to forage for something to eat.”

“I’m not sure I want to talk to a reporter.” Lily glanced back at her friend and laughed as she saw Hannah holding a tray of smoked salmon. “I love your sister.”

“I know. And she loves you.”

“I’m so pleased you invited her. And relieved she came.”

True friendship could survive most things, she thought, and what she and Hannah shared was true friendship. She imagined a future full of big family gatherings, but also times when Hannah and she would meet, just the two of them, sharing all their thoughts as they had when they were children. Whenever she had a health emergency she’d call Hannah, and whenever Hannah moved to a new apartment she’d call Lily to help with the decorating. Each had found their niche.

And here she was in her niche. She even managed to smile for the journalist as he took her photograph next to the painting.

And then Cecilia drew them both to one side.

“I love what you’ve done with the cottage,” she said, “and I hope what I’m going to say next won’t offend you.”

“You’re not going to live in it,” Todd said, and Lily felt a thud of disappointment. It felt like failure somehow. Despite everything, she hadn’t managed to make Cecilia fall back in love with the place.

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