Page 24 of 15 Summers Later

She blew out a breath that ruffled her hair. “I know. You’re right. That’s what I’ve been telling myself, t-too. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

She slid into her car before he could answer.

“On that note,” she said, “I should go home and check on the new kitten. What time are you picking me up in the morning to take care of Paul Lancaster’s sheep?”

She sounded less than enthused at the prospect, which didn’t surprise him. Paul was a crotchety son of a gun who exhibited little patience and even less gratitude.

“You really don’t have to go with me. I can drag Sierra into helping out.”

“I’ll go. What time?”

“We said eight. That way we can be done by ten or ten thirty, which would still give us time to grab an omelet at the Fern & Fir, if you want.”

“I don’t think I have time for that. My day is packed. But I’ll help you with the sheep. I’ll see you in the morning. Have a good night.”

She closed her door and started up her small SUV. He watched until she drove out of the parking lot before climbing into his own pickup truck.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her as he drove toward the house he and Johanna had bought when they first moved back to Emerald Creek, a few blocks from the veterinary clinic.

He shouldn’t have danced with Madi. Even as he asked her, he had known it was a mistake, as if he were crossing some invisible barrier he had carefully maintained between them for the past few years. His own personal Maginot Line.

They were friends. That was all. Or so he told himself, anyway.

Their families were close, almost tighter than the Gentrys were with actual relatives. His mother adored her and she was his sister’s best friend and his daughter’s close confidante.

Since the moment she and her sister had stumbled onto their camp fifteen years earlier, theirs had been an unbreakable bond, forged through shared trauma from the events of that day that others could never understand.

If lately he had begun to wonder if perhaps his feelings toward Madi had begun to grow into something else, something far more than he ever expected, that was his problem to handle.

He would never risk damaging that bond between them by expecting more than she wanted to give.

8

I sag into our grandmother’s arms, her kindness and understanding the balm that soothes the wounds of the past, offering a glimpse of the love and acceptance we so desperately need.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Ava

“Thank you again for helping me today. I can always use another set of hands.”

“I don’t mind,” Ava lied to her grandmother, giving her a practiced smile. In truth, she had absolutely zero desire to sit all morning at the Emerald Thumbs Farmers Market at the town park that took up an entire city block in the center of downtown.

Less than zero.

Too many people knew her in this town—friends of her grandmother and of her sister as well as Ava’s own friends from the two years she had lived here while she finished high school.

She wasn’t even sure which of her friends were still in town, as she hadn’t done a great job of keeping up with people.

She had never been particularly great at small talk. She did not expect she would suddenly find she was any better at it now, after spilling everything raw and real in her memoir. What could she say to people, now that everyone knew?

If she had her way, she would spend the entire summer hiding away here at Leona’s house, tucked away on Elkridge Drive.

She couldn’t do that, unfortunately. She owed her grandmother far more than the sacrifice of a few hours selling bouquets of flowers at the weekly summer market, as well as early strawberries, new potatoes, peas in the pod and baked goods prepared by Leona’s tight circle of friends she affectionately called the Esmeraldas.

Her grandmother had opened her life and her heart to the two of them after the events of that summer. Not for an instant had she wavered from her willingness to take on two orphaned teenage girls suffering emotional and physical trauma.

Leona had provided love and care, a roof over their heads, endless trips out of town to doctors and rehab specialists for Madi, hours spent helping Ava’s sister with exercises and physical therapy.

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