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“Fun times.”

“It was brutal. He was devastated. But here’s the thing about Michael: he’s an amazing man. He’s kind and loving and has such a good soul. He hated what we were going through, he hated losing me, but he wanted me to be happy, and he understood that he wasn’t the one who could make me. It crushed him, but he understood.”

“Wow.” It was all Emerson could think of to say.

“I know. I was incredibly lucky. He could have been angry. Worse, he could have been mean. He could have trashed me around town. He could have trashed Vanessa. He could have told her husband. He had more trouble with the fact that I was sleeping with a
married
woman than that I was sleeping with a woman. He told me so.” Cassie shook her head, slumped a little, as if the memories alone were pushing on her shoulders. “I’m just really lucky that Michael’s a good man, that he’s not vindictive. I hurt him pretty badly.”

“So, you left your marriage for Vanessa. I assume she didn’t do the same.”

Cassie’s voice went very quiet. “No. She didn’t.” She kept her eyes on the road and Emerson could see the pain on her face.

“Bitch.” Emerson grimaced.

The hurt that had creased Cassie’s face was glaringly apparent to Emerson, and she decided to leave well enough alone. She had enough going on without adding Cassie’s emotional baggage to her already full plate. She sort of wanted to know more, but not if it hurt this much, so she let it go. “Hey, let’s get something to eat. It’s the least I can do to say thanks for helping me out. Is there someplace we can grab dinner and eat it outside with Gordie?”

A glowing smile replaced the discomfort immediately. “I know just the place,” Cassie said, hitting her turn signal.

Half an hour later, they sat on the bumper of the open hatchback in the small parking lot of Jefferson’s Roadside Grill, Gordie on the ground between their feet. The air was brisk and a little chilly, and Cassie breathed in deeply through her nose.

“Ah. Smell that? Smells like winter’s coming.”

“I can’t smell anything,” Emerson said, holding a hand in front of her full mouth, “except for this most divine cheeseburger on the entire planet.”

“Told you,” Cassie said with a grin, seemingly pleased with Emerson’s satisfaction. “Best burgers in the Adirondacks. Wait until you taste the fries.”

They sat in very companionable silence, thigh to thigh, as they chewed and watched the stars slowly begin to glow as the sky darkened.

“Days are getting shorter,” Cassie remarked softly.

Emerson gave a nod.

“Bet you don’t get to see stars like this in L.A.”

“Not this kind of star,” Emerson said. “But I see lots of the other kind.”

“Really? Who? Tell me who you’ve seen.” Cassie turned so one leg was up in the hatchback and she was facing Emerson. She looked like a little kid, all giddy and expectant, her eyes sparkling, and Emerson laughed aloud.

“Well, let’s see. I saw Luke Wilson in a grocery store once. Ryan Gosling stopped next to me at a stop light and waved. Jennifer Garner and Angie Harmon go to my gym.”

Cassie’s eyes were bright, even in the waning light. “No way! That’s so cool.”

Emerson gave a half-shrug. “I guess. You get used to it.”

Cassie sipped her soda. “Do you like California?”

“I do,” Emerson said quickly. “Can’t beat the weather.”

“I don’t know.” Cassie made an encompassing gesture with her arm, indicating the rainbow of trees that lined the edge of the lot. “Look at all this. It’s beautiful. I think I’d miss the change of seasons.”

“Everybody says that. But when it’s ten below with five feet of snow here, it’s seventy-five and sunny there. I’ll take sunny.”

Cassie tipped her cup so her straw aimed at Emerson. “I see your point.” After a beat, she asked, “Do you have somebody there? Your mom could never really tell when you were dating or not dating.”

Emerson thought of Claire, of how differently they would each describe their relationship. “I date,” she said with a half-shrug.

Cassie studied her for a moment, and Emerson was prepared to shut the conversation down. Her love life was
her
business, nobody else’s. Instead, Cassie surprised her. “Don’t you miss Lake Henry even a little?” she asked softly.

Emerson swallowed, startled by the change in tone, and popped a fry into her mouth. She rocked her head one way, then the other, as if weighing the options. “Once in a while, I suppose. A little.”

Cassie seemed to wait for more, but Emerson offered nothing further. Instead, Emerson crumpled her burger wrapper, turned to Cassie, and asked, “Ready?”

Emerson took the wheel this time, despite feeling tired. She knew it was from the constant conversation. She was quiet by nature, liked to be alone, didn’t need endless chatter. Cassie, apparently, was the opposite because they had driven no more than a mile before she asked, “What do you think you’ll do with your mom’s stuff? Any idea?”

“Her stuff?” Emerson asked.

“Yeah. You know. The inn.”

Pressing her lips together, Emerson thought about everything, from her indecision to her confusion to her phone call to Arnold Cross. Then she simply said, “I don’t know yet.”

“Are you going to sell it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“You should talk to Mary.” Cassie’s gaze was out the window as she spoke. “She could show you the ropes. Or probably run it herself. You may have to hire somebody to help a little, because let’s face it, Mary’s no spring chicken. But she loves the place as much as your mom did.” Suddenly, her eyes widened and she turned to Emerson. “Wait. You don’t have a job anymore.” She poked Emerson in the shoulder. “
You
could stay here and run it. How awesome would that be?”

“Oh, no. Not awesome. Not awesome at all. I’m going back to L.A.” Emerson shook her head. “The last thing I want is to be stuck back here in this godforsaken town.”

“Hey,” Cassie snapped, causing Emerson to flinch. “This is where your mom lived. This is where I live, and I happen to think there’s no better place on earth.” She turned to gaze out the window, and her voice softened a bit. “You don’t have to agree, but maybe you could at least think for a second before you open your mouth.”

As if on cue, they passed the
Welcome to Lake Henry
road sign. Emerson felt heat crawl up her neck at having been scolded like a child.

Cassie kept quiet after that.

Emerson immediately missed her banter.

The mouthwatering aroma of
pot roast hit Cassie’s nostrils the second she entered her parents’ house at 6:35 on Sunday. Cassie had worked at her store from when they opened at nine that morning until closing at six. She was exhausted, but happy to be where she was. Katie Parker stood in the kitchen, black apron tied around her waist, mashing potatoes by hand. As Gordie headed off to the living room in search of children to kiss, Cassie took off her jacket and draped it over a kitchen chair.

“Hi, Mom,” she said and kissed Katie on the cheek.

“Hi, sweetie,” Katie replied.

“Why don’t you use the hand mixer to mash those?”

“Because I like them to be a little bit lumpy.” She grunted with effort. “Why don’t you hang your jacket in the closet?”

“Because the kitchen chair was boring and needed a splash of color.” Cassie grinned at her mother’s glare, then took the masher from her hand. “Here. Let me finish.” Katie brushed her hands on her apron and made room for her daughter to take over.

“Hey, Superpunk.” Cassie’s older sister, Chris, entered the kitchen and gathered up silverware. She’d christened Cassie with the nickname on Halloween when Cassie was eight and had decided to dress up as a super hero of her own creation. Superpunk had been born that night. And it had stuck.

Despite their six year age difference, Cassie and Chris could almost pass for twins. Their dark hair was exactly the same shade, their eyes the same color and shape. Chris would swear under oath that she was ¾” taller, but Cassie was of the “round up” rule, so she insisted they were the same height.

“Kids here?” Cassie asked unnecessarily as sounds of giggling came from the other room. She finished up her smashing and tapped the masher against the edge of the pot.

“Just Izzy and Zack . Trevor is off at a friend’s.”

“On a school night? Liberal of you.”

Chris smiled. “He’s not staying over. Not on a Sunday night. And not with the C in math he’s currently got. I only let him go because he was driving me crazy, and I was afraid I might kill him.”

“A C isn’t awful.”

“It is if you want to stay on the hockey team.”

“Ah.” Cassie nodded. “I didn’t think of that. You’re right. And Bill?”

“Working another weird shift,” Chris answered, referring to her husband’s whacky schedule of late.

“How was the day?” Katie asked Cassie, and Cassie knew she meant the store.

“Not terrible. Not great, but it didn’t suck. Should’ve been a bit busier for a Sunday at this time of year, but I’m not going to stress over it.”

Katie shot her a look that said,
Yes, you will,
but kept quiet.

The dining room table was a place of joy in the Parker household, more so this evening because this much of the family hadn’t been together in nearly two months. Between Cassie’s retail hours, her father’s parent-teacher meetings and paper grading, and Chris’s real estate job, not to mention all the sports and activities of the grandkids, and Bill’s working trick work, getting the entire family together for a meal was next to impossible. As Cassie set the giant bowl of mashed potatoes on the table, she glanced into the living room to see both Izzy and Zack—Chris’s two youngest—rolling around on the floor and trying to hide their faces from Gordie’s questing tongue. Izzy would giggle, “No, Gordie,” but then reveal enough of her face for him to lick before she’d squeal with delight and roll away. Gordie’s entire body vibrated with joy, as this was his favorite game of all time.

“Cassandra,” Jim Parker said from the recliner when he laid eyes on his daughter. “How are you, honey?”

“I’m good, Dad. You?”

“Can’t complain,” was his stock answer. He pushed himself to his feet and navigated the obstacle course made up of two children and a dog that blocked his way to dinner. He was a tall, lean man with salt-and-pepper hair and clear blue eyes that both his daughters bemoaned not inheriting. “Come on, kids. Time to eat.”

There was a pretty steady hum of conversation for a group of only six people, but the kids had lots to tell. Zack was almost nine and was very excited for the skiing season to begin. He had important plans for some of the larger slopes this year, now that he was “big.” Izzy, at five years old, was all about her new dollhouse and was saving her chore money so she could buy a new couch for her living room because the one she currently had had “gone out of style.”

“Huh. Wonder where she gets that from,” Jim said, sending a sideways glance at Chris.

“Isn’t her mother on, like, her third couch since moving into that house?” Cassie asked, eyes wide with mock innocence. Next to her, Katie chuckled quietly.

“You can all be quiet,” Chris said without venom, but with a slight grin.

“What are we doing for Halloween?” Cassie asked the kids. “Have we made final decisions on costumes?”

“I’m going to be Elsa from
Frozen
!” Izzy pronounced, using her fork to poke at the air.

“You are? Well, that’s a shocker,” Cassie said, then under her breath, added, “not at all.”

“I’m going to be a ninja,” Zack said.

“Weren’t you a ninja last year?”

“Yup.”

When no explanation came, Cassie simply said, “Okay then.”

Changing the subject, Jim asked, “Hey, Cassie, how’d the drive go yesterday? All right?”

“Easy,” she said. “Uneventful. Less traffic than I expected.”

“Where’d you go?” Chris asked.

“I followed Emerson Rosberg to Albany so she could return her rental car and still have a ride back here.”

“Emerson Rosberg, huh?” Chris’s eyes glinted. “Interesting.”

Cassie furrowed her brow. “What? I did her a favor.”

“Oh, no. I know. I was just remembering her from way back.”

“In school?” At Chris’s nod, Cassie asked, “Was she in your grade?”

“A few years behind me, I think.” Then her shoulders shook with gentle laughter. “You had
such
a crush on her.”

“What? I did not. Did I?”

“Oh, you did. From the time you were Zack’s age until…I don’t even know how long. Through junior high and into high school, at least.”

Cassie scoffed.

“Mom?” Chris asked.

“It’s true,” Katie said matter-of-factly. “Sorry, honey.”

“Seriously?” Cassie was shocked.

“Seriously. In fact, Mom and Dad wondered about your—,” Chris lowered her voice and glanced at her kids. They were having a subtle light saber battle with their forks. “Preferences,” she whispered.

“No!” Cassie looked from her mother to her father and back again. “Seriously?” she asked again.

“Yup.”

“I don’t remember that. I mean, I remember liking her, but…why didn’t anybody ever say anything?”

Chris shrugged. “Michael came along. You guys were joined at the hip and I think everybody breathed a sigh of relief.” She glanced at Cassie. “No offense.”

“How about after Michael? Why didn’t you tell me then?” Cassie looked to her mom.

“Honestly, honey, I didn’t think of it. Junior high was quite a while ago. I’d forgotten.”

“Huh.” Cassie let that roll around while she chewed a piece of roast.

“What’s she like?” Chris asked.

“Who? Emerson?” Cassie shrugged. “She’s tall.” The adults laughed and Cassie went on. “She’s nice enough. Doesn’t talk much, but she’s nice enough.”

“Doesn’t talk much or couldn’t get a word in edgewise?” Chris asked.

“Har har. Doesn’t talk much, though I did get her to open up a little, get her talking.”

“Talking or listening until her ears bled?”

“Stop it,” Cassie whined and tossed her napkin at her sister.

“I’m surprised she’s still here,” Katie said. “Everything I got from Caroline said Emerson hates it here. That’s why she rarely visited.”