Page 35 of April Flowers

“I told you not to go out looking for her,” Noah said, feeling a smile in his voice. “She’s a spitfire. Maybe I won’t ever know how to handle her. But she just got here. We have to figure each other out.”

Sam was quiet.

“Thanks for all your help today,” he offered. “I know you had a lot on your plate. More than that, I know that none of these people actually belong to your family. Lillian isn’t your mother-in-law anymore. You’re taking care of everyone, and you don’t even really have to.”

“We’re all family on this island,” she countered. “We have to take care of each other.”

Another gust of freezing wind came off the Nantucket Sound and went straight to Noah’s core. He shivered. He wanted to get off the phone.

But he decided to ask, “How’s Lillian?”

Sam let out a long sigh. Noah was pretty sure she was driving. A feeling of air to the call made him think she was speeding down a long, empty road.

“Lillian is Lillian,” Sam offered. “But I have some news. I don’t know how to tell you this.”

Noah furrowed his brow and tried to imagine what she could tell him that could destroy him. Avery was inside and safe. She was going to work with him now, not against him. It was going to be good.

“Out with it,” Noah ordered finally, trying to laugh. “The suspense is killing me.”

“When Margot got home today, there was a teenager in the boathouse,” Sam said.

Noah’s heart dropped into his stomach. He knew what she was going to say next, but he let her go on.

“Even though she refused to introduce herself, we know it was Avery,” Sam added.

Could it be a coincidence? Noah scrambled for some logic in all this.

“When she was found the other day, she was in another boathouse,” Noah said. “I guess it’s where she likes to hide out.” He wanted to add that she wasn’t going to do that anymore, even though there was no way to know that.

“Avery and Margot spent a little time together,” Sam added quietly.

“Oh.” Noah closed his eyes. He felt reality crashing in on itself.

“Margot did what she could for her,” Sam said. “She fed her and so on.”

“Of course she did.”

Margot was one of the kindest and sweetest people in the world. No question that she’d seen that skinny teenager and thought,How can I help her?

“But it sounds like Avery knew who Margot was,” Sam added. “She called her by her name and asked her questions about herself.”

Noah couldn’t breathe. “How could she possibly have known?”

“I don’t know.”

Noah’s eyes stung with tears.

“I better go,” he said.

“Of course. But listen. I’m just so glad she’s back home,” Sam said. “I hope she knows she has a ton of people rooting for her.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Sam. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sam said.

They hung up, and Noah stood like a fool in the winter cold, his thoughts whirring like the snow that suddenly came from the thick stretch of clouds above.

The other night at the burger place, Avery heard the name Margot for the first time. Obviously, she’d been intrigued. Was that why she’d gone to school? So she could escape for a few hours and poke around Margot’s life? Did she want to dig through Noah’s dark past and discover more about him? Or did she just want to make a mess of things?

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