“You did not need to do this,” I say to Evie as I hold the cute pink bag close. “I certainly hope you didn’t spend a bundle.”
“We didn’t spend anything more than our time,” Evie says with a warm smile. “Lyla Nell and I made this together. Well, I did most of it. She mostly bossed me around and ate paint.”
“I no eat paint!” Lyla Nell protests from Noah’s arms. “I taste paint! Paint so delicious!”
Both Everett and Noah groan at the thought.
I pull out the card—construction paper with glitter glue around the edges that’s already adhering to my fingers—and inside are two perfect little footprints in blue and green paint. Ozzy and Corbin, their names written underneath in Evie’s neat handwriting.
To the World’s Best Mommy, Thank you for being you.
And just like that, my heart melts on cue as I dissolve into an emotional puddle right there in my mother’s garden while wearing a vintage dress and covered in forest debris.
“Oh, you guys,” I whisper, my throat doing that tight thing that means tears are approximately three seconds away.
“Open the gift!” Evie urges, jumping up and down with excitement.
“Presents, Lottie!” Lyla Nell shouts, garnering a few laughs from nearby guests.
None from me. I’m too busy trying not to cry in front of half the Daughters of Honey Hollow.
I reach into the pink bag and pull out something bundled in pink tulle. It’s heavier than I expected. Solid and strangely smooth.
“What is this?” I ask as I unwrap it carefully.
And once I see it, a breath hitches in my throat.
Stones.
Five smooth, polished white stones.
The same five stones I collected from the blue velvet box.
Bernard Thornbury’s memorial stones.
“Oh! Ohno.”
“Oh yes!” Evie says, beaming as if she just presented me with the Hope Diamond—five of them. “I found those rocks at the house and Lyla Nell and I had the idea to paint little messages on them for you.Aren’t they cute?”
I stare at the stones in both wonder and horror.
One is painted to look like a sunflower withBEST MOMwritten in cheerful yellow letters.
Another is a butterfly withWE LOVE YOUin purple and pink.
A third is a ladybug withYOU’RE AMAZINGin bright red with little black dots.
The fourth is a sparkling unicorn withLYLA NELLpainted across it in rainbow letters and approximately seventeen coats of glitter.
And the fifth hasEVIEwritten in elegant script surrounded by tiny painted hearts.
They’re beautiful. Precious. The kind of handmade gift that mothers treasure forever and display on mantels and get emotional about every time they look at them.
They’re also a dead man’s ashes turned into decorative rocks.
I look up at Noah and Everett with wild eyes.
They both shrug, clearly as horrified and amused as I am, but also trying very hard not to laugh.
