Page 31 of 15 Summers Later

“I didn’t eat anything this morning. I’m sure that was to blame.”

“Is that so?” Leona looked doubtful.

“Yes. My blood sugar probably dipped.”

“Right. Well, finish that and you can go back to the house and make yourself an omelet or something. I can handle the rest of the market.”

She was slightly ashamed at how tempted she was by the suggestion. Her grandmother’s house offered a calm and peace that always seemed to embrace her when she walked inside.

She wouldn’t. What good would come from trying to hide away from the world so she could grieve for the marriage she might have destroyed?

“I’m fine. I feel much better now. The scone helped. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, dear. Though taking a rest and putting your feet up would probably be even more helpful.”

Ava shook her head. “You’re almost sold out of everything. We shouldn’t be here much longer. I’ll stay to help you carry everything back to your car.”

Her grandmother looked as if she wanted to argue but she only shook her head, eyes worried, as she turned back to greet another customer.

9

The world beyond the compound is a kaleidoscope of overwhelming sensations, vibrant colors of a world we had almost forgotten.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Madison

The drive out to the Lancaster sheep farm the next morning was quiet and lovely, with bucolic views and few other cars on the road.

The sun was beginning to crest the mountains when Luke picked her up in the vet clinic pickup truck. She handed him a go-cup of coffee, which he accepted gratefully.

“Thanks. How do you always seem to know when I forget coffee?”

“Maybe I’m psychic.” She smiled, though it really didn’t take any sort of extrasensory perception. He was always forgetting to turn on the coffee machine at his place the night before. He usually slept in and didn’t have time to brew it in the morning.

“You must be.”

“Lucky guess. Even if you already had coffee, I figured you might need extra this morning. You’re not used to partying late into the night.”

“Right. I’m such a stodgy old man these days.”

“I didn’t say that.” She sipped to hide her smile. “I meant you don’t spend a lot of time hanging out at the Burning Tree. You’re out of practice.”

“I’m notthatout of practice. And it’s not like I partied until 3 a.m. anyway. I was home by eleven and sound asleep by midnight.”

She hadnotbeen asleep by midnight. Instead, she had spent a restless night. Somehow she couldn’t seem to get the memory of dancing with him out of her mind.

He turned on a gravel road that led to the Lancaster farm. Morning dew gleamed on the fields around them, glistening in the sunlight like scattered gems. Some of the neighboring farmers had already cut their first crop of hay and it still lay in geometric rows, waiting for the balers.

Madi knew if she rolled down the window, the air would smell of cut alfalfa, new leaves and earth, fresh and clean and dearly familiar.

“What time did Nicole wander home from the bar last night?” Luke asked.

“Shortly after one.”

She didn’t think it appropriate to inform Nic’s brother that when Madi had been awake to let out her dogs around that time, she had seen her roommate making out in the front seat of a Jeep that had a roof but no doors.

“She seems to be getting along well with the new river rat. What’s his name again? Houston? Dallas?”

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