Page 107 of 15 Summers Later

No. They didn’t. Why couldn’t they go back to the way things had always been between them? Easy and friendly and warm, without this chaotic morass of emotions that threatened to ruin everything?

“This isn’t the time.”

He sighed. “I know. I’m sorry about Sierra. I’ll talk to her.”

She didn’t know how to answer that, so she simply turned and walked away.

After returning to the animal rescue tent, she tried to concentrate on the reason she was there, helping these animals find their perfect forever homes.

As she spoke with people—some serious, others only there to look at the cute puppies and kittens—a low drumbeat of anger throbbed through her. It was focused on only one person.

Ava.

If her sister had bothered to tell her a news crew was in town, Madi might have been prepared for the ambush.

She helped a young couple interested in adopting a kitten with the necessary paperwork, then finally turned to Ed Hyer, unable to quell the simmering frustration.

“Can you handle things here for a while?” she asked. “I need to go talk to my sister.”

“Sure. No problem.”

Without looking at Luke or any of the other volunteers working the event, Madi walked away, striding briskly toward her grandmother’s stall.

She found Ava chatting with a couple she didn’t recognize. One of them, Madi noticed through a burgeoning haze of fury, was holding a copy ofGhost Lake.

When she approached, Ava gave her a look she didn’t immediately register. After a beat, she thought it almost looked likerelief. Surely that couldn’t be right, could it?

She didn’t know her sister anymore. Not really. How could she presume to know what might be going through Ava’s head?

“When you’re done signing autographs with your fans,” she said, her voice low and intense, “I need to talk to you.”

“I’m not signing autographs,” Ava protested. “We were only chatting.”

“When you’re finished chatting, then, I would appreciate if you could squeeze out a moment for your sister.”

“Are you Madison?” One of the tourists lit up, eyes bright, and held her book out as if she wantedMadito sign it.

Madi didn’t realize she was glaring darkly at the woman until Ava stepped in, tugging her arm.

“Excuse me, won’t you?” she murmured to the two women. She grabbed Madi’s arm and dragged her away, probably before Madi could fully lose her temper.

Ava led her to the steps of the courthouse. “Okay. What’s so important?”

“I didn’t say anything was important. Annoying, yes. Important, no. A half hour ago, I was ambushed by a reporter from Nine News who wanted to know my thoughts about your stupid book.”

Now it was Ava’s turn to glare. “It’s not a stupid book,” she snapped. “That refrain of yours is getting really old. Other people don’t seem to think it’s as terrible as you do.”

“You could have warned me. Why didn’t you tell me a reporter was in town?”

“If I had known she was in town, I would have. I didn’t know until she ambushed me, too. I told her I didn’t have time to talk to her right now, and anyway, she should have cleared interview requests with my publicist.”

“Your publicist,”Madi echoed with a scoff. “Well, unfortunately, not all of us have a fancy publicist to vet our interview requests for us, do we? What am I supposed to do when the next reporter comes out of nowhere while I’m in the middle of something important?”

“Tell them to go to hell. You seem to have no problem telling me that in so many words, over and over again.”

“And just look how well that has worked out for me. You’re still here.”

She saw the hurt flare in her sister’s eyes, quick and jagged, before Ava blinked it away.

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