Chapter 10
In June, I invited Olivia’s family to the villa.
I spoke to her and David before I told the children. I wanted them to know exactly what the invitation meant: a weekend visit, bedrooms ready for them, and no question about who owned the house.
“We understand,” David said.
Olivia was quiet for a second.
“Thank you for asking us.”
I prepared the guest rooms myself. I put fresh sheets on the beds and found a box of colored pencils for Lily. Ben was old enough to think a lake was more interesting than any gift I might leave on his pillow.
When their SUV reached the driveway, my chest tightened.
The last time I had seen it there, they were unloading boxes to move in. I stood on the porch and waited while they got out.
Ben ran toward me.
“Can we see the water first?”
“After you put your bags inside.”
He looked at Olivia for support. She shook her head.
“Listen to your aunt.”
Lily hugged me, then carried her small overnight bag through the open door. She stopped beneath the ceiling lights.
“These stayed on this time,” she said.
I crouched beside her.
“They did.”
“I thought they broke when we were here before.”
“The house had a security setting on. Everything is working now.”
She seemed satisfied and went to find her room.
Olivia stood in the doorway. Her eyes moved across the living room, where I had put James’s books back on their shelves and repaired the scratch on my grandmother’s chest.
“I remember standing here with a glass,” she said.
“So do I.”
“I’m sorry, Rachel.”
I had heard her apologize before. This time, she had come as my guest. She had asked what she could bring and accepted my answer. She had told her children that I owned the villa and had invited them for a visit.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said.
She came inside.
We spent the afternoon at the lake. David helped Ben skip stones. Lily drew the pine trees from a blanket in the shade. Olivia and I watched them with our shoes off and our feet in the cold water.
“Dad sent another payment,” she told me.
“I saw.”
“He’s working. Mom says he doesn’t speak much about what happened.”
“I hope he keeps the agreement.”
“I do too.”
Susan had written to me twice. Her letters asked how I was, and neither asked for a favor. I had answered one with a short note saying I was well. That was the relationship I could manage for now.
Olivia did not ask me to do more.
At dinner, Ben wanted to know whether I had brought my ship to the lake. I told him it would be a difficult drive. He laughed so hard he almost tipped his chair.
Later, after the children were asleep, David and Olivia offered to clean the kitchen. I let them. I went into the study to put away a photograph Lily had drawn for me.
She had drawn five people beside the water: herself, Ben, her parents, and me. Above them was a large house with yellow light in every window.
I set it beside the blue folder.
James’s letter was still inside. I knew what it said without opening it. He had wanted me to come home tired and know I did not have to earn a welcome.
For a while after he died, I thought losing him meant losing that feeling forever. Then Dad tried to take the one place where I could still find it.
I had protected the house. Olivia had done the harder work of learning to enter it as my sister again. The children were asleep upstairs, safe and certain they were wanted.
I heard Olivia at the study door.
“Are you coming outside?” she asked. “Ben says there’s a meteor shower, and he made David promise to wake him.”
“He’ll be asleep before we reach the porch.”
“Probably. David’s going to try anyway.”
I followed her.
Ben came downstairs wrapped in a blanket, determined to stay awake. Lily appeared behind him, unwilling to miss anything. We went out together and settled into the chairs facing the dark lake.
A streak of light crossed the sky. Ben shouted and pointed too late for the rest of us to see it.
“I saw one,” Lily whispered a moment later.
I looked up and caught the next one.
Olivia leaned against my shoulder. Neither of us spoke. We could hear the children arguing softly about how many stars they had seen.
When they grew sleepy, David carried Lily inside. Ben insisted on walking, his blanket trailing behind him. Olivia followed them, then turned back.
“You coming?”
“In a minute.”
I stayed in the chair until the porch light went out. Olivia had turned it off because she knew I liked to see the sky from there.
The villa was quiet behind me. Its doors were secure. The people inside had come because I asked them to, and they would leave knowing they could return when I asked again.
Then Ben opened the door and called, “Aunt Rachel, you’ll miss the hot chocolate!”
May you like
“I’m coming,” I answered.
I stood, took one last look at the lake, and went home to them.
