to Rosebay, its brakes shrieking

silence. Ten years gone, and still-every streetlight, every chipped

at the train. She did

she once called home and into the mem

The church bell still rang at noon. And Petals & Posies, her grandmother's flower sh

ront of it for

e "Closed" notice was still taped to the door-weat

as her

r everything. The house. Th

e wave of guilt that crashed over

ck with the smell of dri

forgotten promises. But beneath the disrepair, Olivia fe

cash register and whispered, "

cry at th

she packed her apa

ake daisy chains and press violets in books, she

tcase, opening only the kitchen cupboards, avoiding the upstairs bed

t touch t

ven open

ad a name, but she refu

he sun spilled over

k's office to sign the final estate documents. The woman behin

or a while?" the

now," Oliv

" the woman added casually. "He helped y

a sti

name in years. Hadn'

as

thing. The boy she'd kissed under the pie

d. "Is he st

e woodwork contracts in Rosebay now.

orms and didn't ask

n the corridor when

he way a dream was befor

e corner and

ca

in hand, sleeves rolled up over strong forearms that had

nd saw her, his

ivi

outh was soft and

forward. "

etween them, thick

were coming back,

t know I

a long beat. "I guess some

. "I'm not

dn't

hop, leaning against his truck, a tape measure in

k you to com

sing a beat. "Your grandmother and I made plans

ping promi

d laugh. "Stil

arily, like two people with

epair quotes," he sa

uc

op, Olivia. Don

asn't ju

believe in beauty. Where she learned

man walk

just a c

he left behind w

she never st