Page 6 of 15 Summers Later

She quickly pushed away the memory, the words.

“Thanks, Grandma Leelee.”

Her grandmother’s features softened at the nickname Ava had come up with for her as a toddler.

“You’re welcome, darling. You can stay in your old room upstairs. I’ll have to move a few storage boxes out. I’ve been clearing out closets of all my old crap and have put everything in your room so I only have to make one trip to Goodwill eventually.”

“You don’t have to move anything. I can work around some boxes.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll put them in your sister’s room for now, since she’s living full-time at the farmhouse on the animal rescue property these days.”

Ava tensed at her sister’s name, though Madi hadn’t left her thoughts since she rolled into town. “How is she doing?” she asked, her voice low.

Leona brushed dirt off her overalls. “Well, you’re not exactly her favorite person right now. Let’s put it that way.”

She swallowed hard. “I told her about the book. I sent her an advanced copy. She had plenty of warning.”

“Yes. She knew it was coming. But you know Madi. She tends to focus on what’s directly in front of her. She’s been so busy trying to get the animal rescue off the ground, I think it was easier for her to put your book out of her head and pretend it wasn’t really happening. Now that it’s out, she can’t escape it.”

She had known the publication of her memoir detailing their months in the mountains and all the events leading up to it would be a pivotal event in her life. She hadn’t realized how every single one of her relationships would be impacted, from her casual friendships to the guy who used to fill up her car with gas to her fellow faculty members at the middle school where she taught English.

She wasn’t sure her marriage could ever recover.

You never told me half of the things you went through.

Cullen’s voice seemed to echo through her memory, stunned and upset and...hurt as he looked down at his copy ofGhost Lakeas if it were a viper that had suddenly invaded their bed.

I feel like I’ve been married to a stranger for the past three years.

He had been the one to suggest they use their separation while he was working in the remote mountains near here to figure out what sort of future they could salvage.

I love you, Ava. That hasn’t changed. But I think we both need time to figure out where we go from here.

Her entire world was falling apart because of the words she had written. The same stark, painful honesty that seemed to resonate with the rest of the world now threatened to destroy the two things she held most dear, her relationship with her sister and her marriage to Cullen Brooks.

“Come on. Let’s get you settled before you fall over,” Leona said with a warm smile that made Ava again want to weep.

Her grandmother carried her laptop case into the house while Ava followed behind with her suitcase.

The house smelled of vanilla and strawberry pie, scents that made her stomach rumble with the reminder that she hadn’t had anything but a few crackers since dinner the evening before.

This trip had been completely impulsive. Reckless, even. After spending three nights alone in their apartment in Portland, she decided she couldn’t take the echoing silence another moment. That very morning she had awoken gritty-eyed from a night of tossing and turning. One moment, she had been brushing her teeth, the next, she’d grabbed her suitcase out from under the bed and started throwing in everything she thought she might need.

After talking to her neighbor about keeping an eye on things and picking up their mail, Ava headed out, stopping only twice during the entire nine-hour drive for gas.

What else could she do? She couldn’t go ahead with the book tour, pretending everything was fine when her entire world felt...broken.

She should have told Cullen everything. She supposed she had hidden the truth because some part of her wanted, like Madison, to pretend none of it had happened. To pretend they were two average girls with an average childhood whose average parents each had died tragically, a few years apart.

That last part was certainly true, though only a small measure of the whole, complicated, messed-up story.

One could make the argument that the first part, about two average girls living an average childhood, was true as well...until the summer she turned fourteen and Madi turned twelve, when their mother died and everything changed.

Being here, in her mother’s childhood home, only made her miss Beth all the more. Her mother had exemplified quiet strength and grace. She had been kind to everyone, the kind of person who drew others to her, eager to warm themselves in the bright light of joy that burned within her.

Ava missed her every single day.

Her phone rang as she carried her suitcase to the room that had been hers for the final two years of high school.

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