She held up a palm. “That was a long time ago.”

“Ten years, if I remember right. We were a couple of crazy teenagers, weren’t we?”

“Oh, yes.” She nodded. He didn’t have any idea of just how crazy and irresponsible they had been that summer.

“Are you just here for a few weeks or for a long time?”

“I don’t really don’t know. I basically live a day at a time,” she answered.

He nodded. “I understand that. Mind if I sit down?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Lots of porch steps. Help yourself to whichever one looks most comfortable.”

He sat on the top step and stretched his legs out over the steps to the ground. “I never forgot that summer. How about you?”

“Of course not,” she answered. That summer had set the course for her life the past decade and given her the means for a guilt trip that she went on every spring.

“Two crazy teenagers finding each other, beer, and sex. You married?” he asked.

“No. You?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Engaged?” Harper asked.

“Was at one time. She didn’t like the idea of me being a fishin’ guide.”

She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until he answered. Not that it made a bit of difference. They were totally different people now. “What’d she want you to do?”

“I’ve got a degree in commercial business and worked for a mortgage company a year before I figured out I wasn’t cut out to wear three-piece suits.” He grinned. “How about you?”

“Been job hopping, just makin’ a livin’. Last one was working in a bar and livin’ in an apartment over the place,” she answered.

“You’re kiddin’ me!”

“Nope, didn’t finish high school, but I did get my GED. Haven’t spent a single day at college.”

He stood up. “I figured you’d own an oil well or two by now, or maybe you’d be a model for some fancy clothing place.”

“Disappointed?” she asked.

“Not in the least. We all have to find our way. As my favorite aunt used to say, it doesn’t matter what you do, long as you’re happy.”

“Sounds like a smart woman. It’s getting chilly.” She shivered. “I’m going inside.”

“I’d go get a six-pack of beer from my cabin if you’ll invite me over.” He grinned.

She shook her head and stood up. “Not tonight. We aren’t those crazy kids anymore.”

“I wish we were. That summer was the best time of my life. Maybe another time. See you at breakfast?”

“That’s my job long as I’m here,” she said. Like a famous author once wrote, that summer had been the best of times and the worst of times for Harper. What should have been a sweet awakening had turned into a bitter nightmare.

She went inside and fell forward on the bed, burying her face in the pillow. Then she rolled over and shook her fist at the window. “Why, God? Why would you put me in this cabin and send Wyatt Simpson to the lake the first week I’m here?”

Face your demons and get on with life, the voice in her head said clearly. Was God speaking to her? If he was, then he didn’t know just how big her demons were.

“This is finally feeling like home,” Brook said between bites of her favorite supper—spaghetti, salad, hot rolls, and chocolate pie for dessert.

“Tell me about your first day at school,” Dana said.

“It was okay. I like Cassidy a lot. We’re already friends and there’s this one boy—” Brook laid her hand on her heart and fluttered her thick lashes. “He wears cowboy boots and tight-fittin’ jeans and he’s so dreamy. It’s different in public school. No uniforms. Everyone don’t look just alike.”

Dana’s heart fell into her pink fuzzy slippers. She wasn’t ready for Brook to like boys or want to start dating.

“But he’s got a girlfriend and he’s a senior, so he’d never even look at me.” Brook sighed. “But when I do get a boyfriend, he’s going to look like that and make my heart go all mushy inside. Hey, you know what?” She removed her hand and changed the subject. “We should’ve invited Aunt Harper and Aunt Tawny. They’re probably lonely.”

“They’ve got jobs to do just like us. Tomorrow and Sunday you’ll help Flora in the laundry,” Dana said. No way would she invite those two to supper. Granny had been wise in dividing their jobs. If she’d had to spend thirteen hours a day in the same room with either Harper or Tawny, she’d be ready for a straitjacket. Or worse—she might land in jail.

Brook groaned. “I’d rather clean horse stalls.”

“You see any horse stalls around here?”

Her daughter shook her head. “When we get done tomorrow evening and the store is closed, can we go down to the lake? Maybe even take a sandwich or get Uncle Zed to make us up some cheeseburgers?”

“Either Friday or Saturday night used to be movie and popcorn night. Why not just keep up the way we do things, Brook?” Maybe, just maybe, if she kept the traditions alive and going, she could delay Brook’s inevitable interest in boys.

“Then Sunday when we get done with work?” she asked.