“Mom,” Mallory said quietly, but then nothing else because she didn’t seem to know what to say. None of them did.
“This was his dream.But I had dreams, too.”
Gwen glanced at her sisters, only to find they were looking at her as though being the oldest gave her some kind of insight into what the hell she was supposed to do here. She had no idea.
“I’m so angry,” Ellen shouted, and they all gasped when she threw the glass against the unfinished wall and it shattered against a stud. “And then I feel guilty about being angry because he died and he’s not here anymore. But you know what? I’m still mad at him.”
After taking another of the cheap glasses out of the thrift store box, Gwen passed it to Evie, who slipped it into her mother’s hand.
“I’m so angry everything we worked for our whole lives is on the line and I don’t feel financially secure.” The glass flew through the air and landed in a glittering pile of shards over the first. Evie put another glass in her hand. “I’m so angry my daughters had to put their own lives on hold because their father put us in this position.”
Another glass. “I’m so angry that at a time of my life when I should be starting to relax, I’m going to have to essentially worktwojobs.”
Through the corner of her eye, Gwen saw a shadow fill the doorway—she wasn’t sure if it was Case or Lane—and she gave a quick shake of her head. The shadow receded as she handed Evie another glass, which she put in Ellen’s hand.
Smash.“I’m angry that the one time I ignored my mother’s advice and touched that money, everything went to hell.”
Evie gave her another glass. This time her mom didn’t throw it right away, but her hand was so tight around the base, Gwen was afraid she was going to squeeze too hard and slice her hand open when it broke.
But then Ellen drew her arm back and let it fly. “And I’m most angry that even if this place is successful beyond his wildest dreams and I get that ten thousand dollars back, my vacation plans are ruined because David’s not here. No matter what I do now, the dreamIhad can never come true because he died and it’snot fair.”
Evie held another glass at the ready, but Ellen didn’t take it. Gwen braced herself for the tears that would surely come now, but when her mom’s shoulders started shaking, it was from trying to contain laughter. She couldn’t stop it, and suddenly the four of them were in a hollowed-out carriage house, surrounded by shattered glass, laughing together.
“Good lord, that felt good,” Ellen said after a few minutes, wiping tears from her eyes. “But what a mess.”
“You know sweeping is a mindless chore that helps my mind spin stories,” Gwen said, looking around the floor. “I might be able to finish this bookandstart the next one.”
More laughter, and then Ellen sighed. “I shouldn’t have put all that on you girls, though. I’ve been trying to be strong, but...”
“Mom.” Evie stepped forward, putting her arms around Ellen. “You don’t have to be strong for us. We’re here to be strong foryou—to be strong for each other. We’re your safe space.”
“Always,” Gwen said as she and Mallory wrapped their arms around their mom and Evie.
The group hug helped, she thought, soaking it in. There had been so much talk about them being in this thing together, but the embrace was a bond that surpassed words. She couldfeeltheir strength coming together as a family and it was deeply comforting.
“Okay, you girls go find something to keep you busy while I clean this mess up,” Ellen said, pulling back. They all started objecting, but she held up a hand to cut them off. “That was a lot. I’ve been holding that in a long time, I think I need some quiet alone time to finish processing it.”
Gwen understood that completely and, after finding an empty box for the glass, she and her sisters went outside. They stood for a moment, uncertain of what to do.
“If there’s nothing else, I think I’m going to take the boys to the pool,” Mallory said quietly. “They’ll have friends there and I could do a few laps.”
“I’m going to go work on the social media plan for a while,” Evie said.
Gwen nodded before they walked away, though she didn’t announce her plan because she didn’t really have one. She knew herself enough to know if she opened her laptop right now, she’d just stare at the blinking cursor.
What she needed was a hug. As a rule, she wasn’t a hugger, but having her arms around her family had felt so good. She’d gotten comfort from it, but mostly she’d been offering it. Right now she wanted arms wrapped aroundher. She wanted Case’s arms—his strong body holding her.
And then she heard her name.
Case waited for her in the gazebo.
When he’d crossed the street and gotten close enough to the carriage house to hear yelling and glass smashing, his first thought was that the sisters—probably Gwen and Evie—were having some kind of terrible fight. But then he’d realized it was Ellen’s voice, and he’d slowed his pace rather than rushing into the building to break it up.
The sight of Ellen smashing a glass against the wall while letting her emotions out had told him what he needed to know, and even before Gwen had shaken her head to let him know it was under control, he’d started backing away. Ellen clearly needed to work through some things, and she had her daughters with her. He had no place in that moment.
But when they came outside and Mallory and Evie walked away, leaving Gwen standing there alone, he couldn’t take it anymore. There seemed to be some assumption on everybody’s part that because she wasn’t as expressive with her emotions and always seemed to be in control, that she wasn’t just as messy on the inside as they were at any given time.
He knew better, though, so he called her name and savored the way she almost managed a smile when she saw him. He was sitting on the bench built in all the way around the gazebo wall rather than at the picnic table, and he turned sideways as she entered.
