He pictured the girl with her blue eyes and wide smile. “She seems really sweet.”
“And she’s smart, too. She struggles with her words sometimes but there’s a lot going on in her head.”
“Do you babysit her every day?”
“No. Just when Holly needs me. Lydia’s grandma or her aunt sometimes pick her up after school.”
“Ah.”
She put down her phone and angled toward him. “You didn’t have to come all the way to Idaho to stay with me. I know Mom asked you to but I would have been fine staying with Holly and Lydia. Holly’s super nice and I think she was happy to have my help in the evenings with Lydia, especially this time of year when she’s so busy.”
He shouldn’t ask more but Ryan had to admit he was curious about the woman who was Kim’s boss and her friend, a woman who had somehow seemed both independent and vulnerable.
“Is Lydia’s dad in the picture?”
“They’re divorced. I’ve never met him. He lives in Oregon and his name is Troy. He’s coming home for Christmas, though.I heard Holly talking to her sister about it. They’re twins. Did you know that?”
“Yeah. Her sister was in the store when I got there. It’s kind of hard to miss.”
“Don’t you think it would be cool to be a twin?”
“I’ve never thought of it.”
“I have. I wish I had a twin sister. It would be like having a constant sleepover, right?”
“I suppose. As long as you get along.”
“Anyway, Holly was talking about Lydia’s dad coming for Christmas with Hannah. She seems super stressed about it.”
Had it been a hard divorce? He supposed there was no such thing as an easy one. Even when both parties wanted out, untangling the threads of lives that had been woven together by time and experiences must be tough.
It wasn’t any of his business. He couldn’t imagine his path would cross Holly Moore’s much in the few short weeks he planned to stay in Shelter Springs with Audrey.
“Do you have homework tonight?” he asked as they neared his father’s house, which had once been Diane’s childhood home. The two of them had purchased it, added on and made a forever home out of it after Doug retired from the air force.
“Only a math worksheet. It won’t take me long. I can even do it in home room in the morning.”
“We can work on it later. Have you been by to see Diane since the accident?”
“I spent the first night here with Grandpa after Mom was arrested. That was rough. We went to the hospital to see Diane the next day. And then Holly brought me over here to visit her a few nights ago after Diane got home from the hospital, which was super nice of her since she doesn’t even really know Diane. We took her flowers then, too.”
Ryan had been here only once before, after Kim and Audrey moved to the area to be closer to the colonel and his wife.
He was not surprised to see that at least from the outside the house was neat and orderly. Not a trace of snow covered the driveway or sidewalk, as if the weather wouldn’t dare sully Colonel Douglas Caldwell’s property.
Ryan couldn’t deny it was a lovely house, on the shore of Lake Haven, with its stunning mountain backdrop.
It still seemed odd to him that his father would choose to retire here to this quiet Idaho tourist town, especially after a lifetime spent in positions of authority at various military bases around the world.
Diane probably had a huge role in that decision. She had grown up in Haven Point and had inherited the house after her mother died a few years earlier.
Audrey jumped out as soon as he turned off the engine.
“Here. You take the flowers,” he told her.
“You bought them.”
“They can be from both of us.”
