Page 110 of 15 Summers Later

If Ava ever wanted to have a mutually healthy relationship with her sister, she could not withhold the truth from her. Madi needed to know and Ava needed to be the one to tell her.

“All right. I will.”

“Good. Promise me.”

“Do I have to pinky swear, too?”

“No. A promise will suffice. I trust you.”

“Fine. I promise I will tell Madi the truth.”

“Today?”

She couldn’t see any point in arguing. “Yes. Today.”

“Good.” Leona leaned back on her chair. “Now that’s sorted, tell me why Cullen didn’t make it to the farmers market today. I missed seeing him.”

So did Ava. With every heartbeat, every breath.

She sighed. “He picked up a few supplies when he came down earlier in the week.”

“I suppose that makes sense. It was good to see him, wasn’t it?”

Beyond good. It had been wonderful. She had been shocked to return home from volunteering at the shelter to find Cullen coming out of the guest bathroom at Leona’s house, hair wet from the shower and a smile on his handsome features.

She had been tempted to pull away the towel and drag him into her room. Since her grandmother was downstairs—and since they still had so many unresolved issues between them—Ava had refrained.

He said he had a free evening and decided to come down and take his wife out for dinner, if she was free.

She was completely available, that night or any other night he wanted. Her fatigue from the day had lifted as soon as she saw him and she had quickly changed clothes, hugged the dogs and Leona, and left with her husband’s hand in hers.

They had gone to dinner at a favorite restaurant in Sun Valley and she had wondered if everyone inside the place could see how deliriously happy she was in her husband’s company.

Before he drove away later that night, they had sat in the lush, sweet-smelling garden here, talking and laughing, their fingers touching, almost as if everything was back to normal between them.

It wasn’t. She knew that. They still had a long way to go before they could regain all they had lost. But at least she had some hope that they were both on the right path together, moving in the same direction.

“He said he would try to come down tomorrow or Monday.”

“If it’s tomorrow, we’re invited to dinner with Boyd and Tilly again. Cullen would be more than welcome to join us, if he wants. You know how Tilly is. The more the merrier. That’s the way she likes things.”

“We talked about maybe renting e-bikes and riding over to Hailey, then having a picnic lunch.”

Her grandmother’s features brightened. “That would be lovely, too. But are you sure you’re up for a bike ride?”

“On an e-bike? Definitely. The motor does all the work for me.”

“Maybe I should get me one of those things. What do you think?”

Ava wrapped her arms around her grandmother and kissed the top of her gray hair. “I think you would be even more of a terror than you are now. By all means, get an e-bike. In fact, all your friends should get them as well and you can start a biker gang.”

Leona laughed hard at that mental picture. Fortunately, she was so amused, she dropped the subject of Ava talking to Madi about her gift to the animal rescue.

30

Madison and I share a silent understanding, a bond forged in the crucible of shared trauma. We are survivors, two sisters who found strength in each other when the world outside our isolation seemed like a distant fantasy.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

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