“Hey. It’s me. Denise. I keep trying your number and this is the first time it didn’t go straight to voicemail. I didn’t leave any messages before since I didn’t know if you’d get them. I’m not even sure why I tried calling this time, but I… We’re up at my parents’ cabin and the cell reception is bad and I didn’t know if you were trying to call or… Anyway. Um. I’ll talk to youlater.”
She ended the call and banged her head against the railing. She. Was. Such. A.Spaz.
Ugh.
Lifting her head, she watched her mom wrap a towel around Kimber, then pull her into her lap. She was grateful her parents had been able to spend a few weeks with her and the kids. Kaden and Kimber had needed them as much as she had. There was just something about having your mom and dad with you when you felt likeshit.
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. Rubbing them with the heels of her hands, she tried to shove them back in. Something else she'd been doing a lot of lately. Doc Tailor had told her it was years of suppressed emotion finally having a wayout.
By her own estimation she should be done crying sometime in the next ten to twelveyears.
Sprocket whined and leaned against her leg. She reached down and rubbed behind one of her ears. Her dog had barely left her side in the last few months. She’d tried to dig a hole in the bathroom door one morning when Denise had accidentally shut herout.
“Aunt Denny,” Kaden yelled from the pathbelow.
She rubbed at her eyes a final time and looked down. Kaden ran ahead of her parents, who were holding Kimber’s hands. Sweetpea foraged along the side of thepath.
She waved at Kaden. “Hey, buddy.Hungry?”
“Yes! Grandpa said I could help make hamburgers forlunch.”
“Cool,” she said. “After you take ashower.”
“Aunt Denny,” Kaden whined. “We were in thelake.”
“I know,” she said. “And now you’re covered in fish pee. You need to wash that stuff off before you stick your hands in myfood.”
“Fish pee? Argh!” Kaden ran the rest of the way up the path and she heard the door downstairs open andslam.
Kimber stayed next to her grandmother, either unconcerned about being covered in fish pee or she recognized theMoanareference since she and Bree had watched it on a loop for an entireweekend.
She was envious of their resiliency. They still had the occasional nightmares and Kaden had his heart set on taking karate lessons so he could fight the bad guys, but for the most part they’d bounced back surprisingly well. Being surrounded by love and support helped tremendously—something she constantly reminded herselfof.
Going back into the house, she set the phone on the cradle on her way to the kitchen. Everyone came up the stairs from the basement at the sametime.
“Sweetie, someone was coming up the drive as we were walking up,” her mom said. “Can you see who it is while we shower and change? I’ll give Kimber a quickbath.”
“Sure. Bree said she’d sent me a present, so it’s probably the deliveryguy.”
“That’s sweet of her. Aren’t they coming up for the long weekend? Why couldn’t she have brought itthen?”
Denise shrugged. “Dunno. She didn’tsay.”
“Well, hopefully it’s something worth the delivery fee. Can’t imagine it didn’t cost her an arm and a leg to have something sent all the way outhere.”
Her dad was looking at her mom like she’d lost hermind.
“What?” her mom asked. “They’ll be here in a week. They could have saved the money and brought it with them. I’m only saying.” She threw her hands up in the air and turned toward the bedrooms. “Far be it from me to suggest anyone be fiscallyresponsible.”
Shaking his head, her father said, “I’ll bequick.”
“Okay.” She crossed the house to the front door and opened it as a large black, extended-cab pickup truck crested the small hill in front of thehouse.
Her breath caught in her throat and her heart danced a few fast beats before settling back into a steady, thumpingrhythm.
His hair was long again. He rounded the front of the truck and walked toward her, concern pinching the center of his browstogether.
He climbed halfway up the steps and stopped when they were eye level. “Why are youcrying?”
