Page 123 of Where Roads Lead

She sniffed, blinking up at the string lights around the gazebo.

“The truth was, you were a good wife to my brother. You made him happy. You made his life better. I should’ve been thanking you all this time for that, but I was too busy blaming you for something I’m just realizing you might not have had as much control over as I thought.”

She blinked, eyes narrowed at me in what looked to be a fight between suspicion and hope.

“Thank you for the sacrifices you made for him.” I tried to sound as earnest as I felt. “Thank you for making him laugh and smile and have something to look forward to every day. And thank you for taking care of his heart. I’m more grateful to you than you know.”

She inhaled, and I no longer doubted she felt the weight of the loss the way I did.

“I did love him, you know. Even if it was in a way you don’t understand.”

“I know that, Ava.” I nodded, because why else would she have stuck around all those years if she hadn’t? “I do. I’m sorry if I put you in an unfair situation. I had no right to try to change your mind about something that important. I think I played a bigger part in our dynamic than I’ve ever been able to admit.”

She stared at me, incredulous at the words I was saying, as I was to be saying them. But it was long overdue.

“Look, family fights sometimes, right?” I asked, staring down at her watering brown eyes. “Maybe five years was a little excessive, but we have plenty of time ahead of us to make up for it, okay?”

For a minute she said nothing, and then, all at once, she launched herself at me, wrapping her arms around me in a hug of such gratitude, I couldn’t help but give her a pat on the back in reciprocation.

“Thank you,” she said, pulling back. “You don’t know what it means to me to hear you say that.”

I shrugged, feeling guilty that I’d had the power to fix things for so long and had chosen not to out of sheer stubbornness.

“You know what else family does for each other?”

I raised a brow, a silent tell me in my expression.

She smiled and then looked over to Theo and Elsie with a look of absolute determination.

“They help each other.”

I never would’ve expected Ava to be a good wingwoman, let alone mine, but she was proving to be an extremely helpful ally.

Every time Theo looked on the verge of grabbing Elsie’s hand or trying to pull her away from us, Ava was there to swoop in and distract him.

Solely because of her, Theo and Elsie’s solo date had turned primarily into a group one.

Which, as it turned out, might’ve been a relief for Theo, who quickly realized that Elsie had little to no interest in his high school glory stories he continued to reminisce on.

When that didn’t work, he reached for her hand, and right before I was about to launch between them to put a stop to it, Ava beat me to it by leading Theo to the pumpkin carving display, declaring that we all had to cast our votes.

Ava chose the objective best: a near perfect replica of the Mona Lisa.

Theo chose the one most aligning with his interests: a giant, if unremarkable, Yankees logo.

Elsie chose the most ridiculous one: a pumpkin carved to look like it was retching, with its pulp overflowing out of the mouth in a completely disgusting way.

And me, after a fair amount of pestering, landed on choosing Elsie’s favorite.

The four of us stuck together like glue, and if I didn’t have any opportunity to talk to Elsie privately, at least Theo didn’t, either.

Around the time we stopped at the apple cider stand, the sun was setting, Elsie was shivering, and all I wanted to do was put her in my truck and drive her away from all this insanity.

And all she wanted was an iced cider slushie.

A request she made through chattering teeth, after the rest of us ordered the perfectly sane choice of hot.

Everyone had started walking off, but I lingered at the food truck, buying a donut that I slipped into my pocket for later.