Page 9 of A Brambleberry Summer

She needed the reminder that they had been through difficult things the past few months. It was a small sacrifice to offer a home to them, which she could easily do.

She could also be kind and gracious to them, despite her personal misgivings about having Wyatt in her space.

“I am sorry for that. If there is anything else you need, please let me know.”

“Carrie said you have dishes and pots and pans and things.”

“Yes. The apartment is fully furnished.”

“That will be handy. Thanks.”

His poor little boy. First, he lost his mother, then he lost his house to a fire. She wanted to cuddle him close and make everything all better.

“What about food? You will need to get groceries.”

“Carrie sent along some meals I only have to thaw and heat for the first few days. We’ll head to the grocery store this evening to pick up some staples after we unload our things. Most of the time, we eat pretty simply, don’t we, Logan?”

The boy nodded. “Except Aunt Carrie says we go out to eat too much and I need more vegetables.” He gave Rosa a conspiratorial look. “I don’t really like vegetables.”

“Yes, but you must eat them, anyway, if you want to be strong and healthy when you grow up. My mother used to tell me ‘Rosa, if you eat enough vegetables, soon they will taste like candy.’ They never did, but I still like vegetables.”

He laughed, as she’d hoped, and Rosa felt a little pang. She loved children but didn’t expect she would ever have any of her own, for a wide variety of reasons.

“Your mother sounds funny.”

“She was. She always tried to make me laugh, even when things sometimes felt very dark.”

She missed her mother deeply. The older she got, the more Rosa realized how many sacrifices Maria Elena made on her behalf. She had never been hungry, even though she knew her mother barely made a living cleaning homes for some of the more well-off people in their village. Her mother had always insisted she work hard at school so she could have a brighter future.

She pushed away the memories of her childhood. Her first fifteen years sometimes seemed a lifetime ago, as if they had happened to someone else.

“Oh,” she said, suddenly remembering. “I wanted you to meet Jen and Addie, who live upstairs from you.”

“All right.”

“Let me check if she can meet you.”

She quickly sent a text to her friend. After a longer-than-usual pause, Jen replied that she and Addie would come down to the foyer.

“She said she would meet us outside your door,” she explained to Wyatt.

“Okay.”

“You will like Addie, Logan. Maybe you will make a new friend.”

“Maybe.”

Life could be filled with so much pain sometimes, Rosa thought as they walked out into the hall to wait for Jen. Each of the inhabitants of Brambleberry House had walked a hard road.

At least for now, they had a safe place to rest, a beautiful home set on the seashore surrounded by flowers, one that might contain a friendly spirit who could not seem to leave.

As Wyatt waited for his upstairs neighbor to come down to meet him and Logan, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was too good to be true.

The apartment was perfect for their needs, with a good-size bedroom for Logan and a very nice en suite for him, as well as an extra room he could use for an office if he needed.

It was actually bigger than their little house and certainly had a bigger yard for Logan to play in.

Brambleberry House would be an ideal temporary home for them while the construction crew repaired the fire damage at his place.

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