Max shrugged and leaned back. “People die. It’s not as if we were close to them. They were never around, always too busy with their dumb old bones or fifteenth-century jugs.”
She stood up, strolled to the mantel, and held up their parents’ last find, waving the jug in the air. “What good is a fifteenth-century jug,anyway? To look at? To always be on edge in case someone broke the stupid thing?” She threw Abby a grin and bobbed, pretending to drop it.
“Put it back, Max. I think it’s beautiful, and you know it’s worth a fortune.”
“Yeah, worth so much more than four rowdy kids, huh?” Max put it back and plonked down onto her chair.
Abby couldn’t say anything in response to that. Max was right. Their parents lived and breathed archaeology. She understood their passion—after all, she was an ardent historian herself. But why they bothered to have four children was beyond her. They had spent months at a time away, tracking down old stuff. Even when they were at home, they spent all their time in either the attic or the basement, reviewing and cataloging their finds, so they might as well have been traveling.
The earlier memory of her father came to mind, and Abby said, “We did have some happy times, though, didn’t we?”
Max shrugged again. “I stopped in Brukstoe on the way here, and Ellie Hadden, you remember her? Anyway, she toldme there’s a new spa open at Hadden Inn, and it’s supposed to have all the latest stuff. She thought you’d like to know.”
Abby laughed. She, her sisters, and Ellie had spent most of their older teenage years either in beauty parlors in Brukstoe or, when they could swing it, in spas in Chicago. Of course, if Abby’s parents hadn’t felt guilty for the lack of time they spent with their daughters, the girls would never have been able to afford such luxuries.
Izzy loved the spas and parlors as much as Abby did, and although Max always said she only went for the company, Abby was sure she enjoyed them too.
Even now, Abby spent time in any spa that she could find. They relaxed her, and she found them rejuvenating like nothing else. She had decided long ago she would open her very own spa one day and was excited that Ellie Haddon had done just that. “I’ll ring her first thing tomorrow.”
Out of nowhere, a shiver passed down Abby’s spine, and she looked around to find a reason. The windows were open but there wasn’t a breeze blowing the curtains, and it was a warm day. She looked down at the floor. They were never allowed in the basement when their parents were alive, but now there was nothing stopping her from having a look. She looked up and found Max staring at her.
Her sister grinned. “You can go down there anytime.”
“Have you?”
Max shook her head. “Nope, not yet. I wanted someone with me. Don’t know why, but I just did.”
“Yeah, I get that. I do too.”
“How about we wait till everyone’s here, and we can all go down together.”
Abby wasn’t sure the others would want to, but it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Abby,” Izzy called out as she swept into the dining room.
Abby stood up as her youngest sister paused by thefireplace. “Hang on,” she said, pushing her long blonde hair from her face as she pluckedher cell phone from her bag.
Watching her sister, Abby smiled. Izzy was always girly, and today she was no different with her pretty blue-and-white printed dress with flute sleeves and a ruffled hem.
A frown flashed between Izzy’s blue eyes as she checked her cell.
“Bad news?” Abby asked.
“No, everything’s fine.” She hurried forward and gave Abby a quick hug. “I better tell Garrett you’re here.”
And with that, Izzy nearly ran back out the door. The girl was always rushing about as if she would never have time to accomplish all the things she wanted to do in her lifetime. Even as a young child, she never walked if she could run.
Since their parents’ deaths, Izzy seemed to be even busier every second of the day. Even when she had visited Abby, she either shut herself in her room to write her novels or constantly talked and texted on her phone.
Abby spotted Garrett on the threshold holding a large tray of roast meat and vegetables. As he walked into the room, Izzy ducked past him with a jug of gravy.
Abby waited for Garrett to put the tray on the table and held out her arms. He hesitated, and her heart sank at the thought he might not accept the offer. However, he wrapped his arms around her, squeezed for less than a second, then let go andmoved to sit down at the table.
She grimaced inwardly. Her little brother, dressed in his usual leather jacket, white T-shirt, and tight blue jeans, was becoming more and more alienated from the family. He never showed up for get-togethers anymore. She had to stop herself from pushing his black hair from over his eye. His nose was still a little bent from colliding with the fist of a so-called friend, but she was thankful it looked no worse than the lasttime she had seen him. No new injuries meant he had hopefully not been in too many more fights.
She gazed at him, trying to see under the armor he’d slowly built around himself his entire life.
As Max and Izzy filled their plates with food, the scent of rosemary and garlic wafted to Abby’s nose and her stomach grumbled. Her gaze drifted from the platter to her sisters, and she spotted a box at the end of the long table.
