Page 14 of 15 Summers Later

As soon as her sister left the house, Ava let out a long, ragged breath.

She felt pummeled, bruised, with that greasy nausea curling around in the pit of her stomach again.

“I truly don’t have to stay here,” she said to her grandmother. “I don’t want it to be a problem for you with Madi. I could always look into booking a vacation rental somewhere in town or over the pass in Sun Valley. I’m sure I can find something with decent summer rates around one of the ski resorts.”

“I doubt it. Nothing is cheap around here anymore. We’re starting to have as many tourists in these parts during the summer as we do during the winter these days.”

She had noticed during her occasional visits home to see Leona that the crowds spilling over from Sun Valley to the protected community had increased year-round.

“I’m sure I can find something. Or I can always go back to Portland. This visit was a whim anyway, because I didn’t like being alone at our apartment without Cullen.”

Leona’s stern look beetled her brows. “Don’t be silly. You’re staying right here. You need to work things out with your sister.”

“Work things out? Seriously?” Bile rose in her throat, the nausea that had been ever present since her husband had packed his things and left. She swallowed, trying to will it away. “I’m not sure that is going to happen. I don’t think she will ever forgive me.”

“She might, if you told her the truth.”

Ava caught her breath, suddenly on guard. “What truth?”

“About why you really published the book.”

She shifted her gaze away and blinked hard, not trusting herself to meet her grandmother’s gaze. Ava was lousy at lying and Leona was eagle-eyed about that kind of thing.

“Isn’t it obvious? I wanted fame and fortune. That’s what Madi thinks. Isn’t it what you think, too?”

“No. I think there might have been a deeper issue.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you?”

Ava chose silence rather than try to lie further to Leona.

After a long pause, her grandmother picked up a couple of boxes and headed for the door. “Fine. Keep your secrets. I’ll remind you that I raised two children of my own. I have been lied to by far better than you, my dear.”

She didn’t want to lie to her grandmother, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell her the truth, either.

She had too many secrets. Sometimes her entire soul ached from the weight of carrying them all.

“I don’t have any secrets left,” she lied to Leona. “I threw everything out there inGhost Lake.”

“Not everything.”

“Not everything,” she finally agreed. “Still more than I should have, according to Madi.”

“You are dealing with your past the best way you know how. Your sister is doing the same.”

Her grandmother studied her closely, her eyes filled with so much sympathy Ava had to fight the urge to rest her head against her shoulder and cry.

“Now,” Leona said gently. “Why don’t you have a rest and unpack your things while I work on dinner for us? Later, you can catch me up on everything that has been going on since your book came out.”

Where to start with that? The past few months before and after the book release had been a whirlwind of media requests, interviews, social media buzz.

In the midst of all the chaos, like water inexorably dripping away at sandstone, had been the steady, heartbreaking erosion of her marriage, the one stable thing she thought she would always be able to hold on to.

I feel like I’ve spent the past three years married to a stranger. Why didn’t you tell me any of this?

The memory of her husband’s voice, low with suppressed pain, scraped along her nerve endings with painful clarity.

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