Page 43 of 15 Summers Later

“Perfect. I’m leaving the desserts in here for now so they stay cooler. Just find a place.”

Leona set them next to two pies and a large platter of cookies.

“How else can I help?” her grandmother asked.

“You don’t need to do a thing. Everything is nearly done. Boyd, Luke and Owen are handling the grill and we’ve got things covered in here. Ava, you remember my sister, Penny. And this is Owen’s wife, Valentina. Val, this is Madi’s sister, Ava.”

“Hello.” The woman was small in stature and extraordinarily beautiful. She held a baby bundled against her in a no-hands sling.

“Penny, hello. It’s lovely to see you again. Hello, Valentina. I believe we met your daughter. She looks exactly like you.”

The woman smiled. “Yes. That would probably be my Carlotta. She loves to answer the doorbell.”

“Apparently she was heading out to slide,” Leona informed her.

“Good. Her father can watch over her.”

“Are you sure we can’t help?” Ava asked her hostess. She knew too well what it was like, trying to supervise willing volunteers who sometimes only ended up getting in the way.

“You can go outside and enjoy yourselves! Boyd has cold drinks out there.”

“I’ll take the salad out.”

“Do you need a serving spoon?”

“I can grab it,” her grandmother said.

As another example of their close friendship, Leona helped herself, going straight to a drawer in the island and rooting through until she found a large ladle for the salad.

“Come on. Let me show you around the garden.”

Leona hadn’t exaggerated about the space out here. From Tilly’s wedding to Boyd Walker, Ava remembered the garden as a comfortable space with winding paths and random benches for looking out at the town below.

She didn’t remember the waterfall cascading over rocks or the small pond with colorful water lilies. She saw Owen Gentry sitting in a chair next to the pond, most likely to keep his busy daughter from wandering in.

The water’s song was soothing, comfortable. Ava wanted to sink down onto one of those benches with her journal and write and write until she purged her mind of these twisted ribbons of anxiety.

A low sound of appreciation escaped her. Leona, hearing it, gave a gentle smile. “It’s lovely, isn’t it?”

“It makes me a little breathless.”

“Be sure you tell Boyd. It is his pride and joy.”

The man in question was large and barrel-chested, with a full head of white hair and a broad smile.

There was indeed a play area, covered in tire swings and slides and what appeared to be an old-fashioned-playground merry-go-round. She felt something squeeze her chest as she remembered playing on one for hours with her sister at the school near their house in Oregon.

She had been the oldest. The protector.

Watch over your sister.

How many times had she heard her mother say those words as they left the house?

She’d had one job and she had failed abysmally.

“Why don’t you take this over to the table?” Leona said, handing the salad bowl to Ava. “I’m suddenly dying of thirst and need to see what Boyd has on offer.”

Still looking around warily for any sign of her sister, she carried the bowl to a serving table already heavy with food.

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