“I’ve been all over,” Sasha said, taking a bite of her own slice. “For the last couple of years, I’ve just been traveling around, seeing the sights, working odd jobs.”
“This and that,” April said, taking another bite.
“Exactly,” Sasha said.
“Where’s your family?” Daphne asked.
And there it was again, that dimming in Sasha’s expression. She cleared her throat, shifting on her seat. “I grew up in LA.”
“LA, really?” Daphne said. “That’s exciting. Are your parents involved in movies or something like that?”
Sasha’s smile was small. “Yeah,” she said. “Something like that.”
Silence fell over the table, and April got the distinct impression that Sasha wouldn’t exactly welcome any more questions. She glanced at Daphne, who widened her own eyes with meaning.
“Do you have a favorite city?” April asked, desperate to change the subject.
Sasha brightened. “So hard to choose. Prague. This little town in Montana you can’t even find on a map. Bangkok is spectacular.”
“I’ve never been anywhere,” Daphne said, sighing. “Tennessee. Boston. Now Clover Lake.”
“I haven’t either,” April said, a sort of longing tightening in her chest. New York City, a little town in Maine where her parentsliked to hole up in a cabin every July, Boston. She was thirty-three and she’d never even left the East Coast.
“I highly recommend expanding your literal horizons,” Sasha said. “I’m taking off across the country at the end of the summer myself.”
“You are?” April asked, pausing with her pizza slice inches from her mouth.
Sasha nodded. “Heading west for a month or so before I head out of the country again. I’m planning on visiting some sites I’ve never seen, like the Wave in Arizona and Carlsbad Caverns.”
“So you’re an outdoor queer,” April said.
Sasha laughed. “I appreciate the natural world.”
“That sounds incredible,” Daphne said as she took another bite.
“It does,” April said, her voice taking on a dreamy tone. She cleared her throat, then looked up to find Sasha watching her.
“Hey,” Sasha said, leaning forward, “you’re both more than welcome to—”
But she cut herself off when the dining room went oddly quiet, and the heads of almost every single guest turned toward the wide double doorway that led into the lobby.
“What’s going on?” Daphne said before ripping off the end of her crust with her teeth.
“No idea,” April said, but she got up and headed toward the lobby, just in case Mia needed help with anything. She wove around other people bottlenecking, but the crowd didn’t thin as she left the dining room. A bevy of guests congregated around the reception desk. They formed a sort of circle, but April couldn’t see who was at the center.
“I’m such a big fan,” said Grace Latimer, an octogenarian hippie April recognized from her and Daphne’s watercolor class.
April picked up her pace but then froze when she saw thefamiliar luggage sitting off to the side—two huge suitcases, mint green with ruby-red cherries printed all over them.
“Okay, everyone, let’s give Ms.Monroe some room,” Mia said, coming out from behind the desk. “She’s here to relax, after all.”
The crowd parted a bit, and there was Dylan Monroe, brown hair longer than the last time April had seen her, ice-green eyes sparkling, and dressed in wide-legged jeans and a cropped T-shirt that featured a picture of a tabby cat wearing heart-shaped glasses, the wordLoverprinted underneath.
“Thanks, Mia,” she said. “And thanks, everyone, I’m so excited to be back in Clover Lake.” She waved, but then clearly stepped away from the group. The guests disbanded, chattering as they went.
April could only stare as she saw Ramona standing at the desk, her back to April as she seemed to be signing a receipt. She wore a black-and-white blouse covered in starlings and tucked into a pair of high-waisted jeans, which hugged her thick thighs.
“Mona?” April finally managed to say.
