The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

When she was ready, Emma picked up her handbag and made her way downstairs. The smell of coffee that had sat too long in a pot and fried butter assaulted her olfactory nerves as she descended, causing her to wrinkle her nose. She could hear her sisters’ voices, familiar to her, but not familiar. They were the voices of women she’d never really known, of women who had appeared in her life when their father had died, forced, along with her, into an uncomfortable little family trio. Emma had known Libby briefly when they were children. Madeline? She’d never heard her name until she learned of her father’s death.

This morning there was someone else, a third woman. When Emma walked into the kitchen, she saw Danielle Boxer. Dani owned the Grizzly Lodge and Café in Pine River and apparently had become a close friend of Madeline’s, judging by how many times she showed up at the ranch each week.

“There she is!” Dani said brightly. She wore her long gray hair piled on top of her head, and a white Guayabera shirt. Emma never saw Dani wear anything but those shirts.

“Here I am,” Emma said as she walked across the kitchen, then pushed back the yellowed curtains from the window above the sink and opened it to air out the room.

Madeline was sitting at the bar, Libby busy with something in a bowl. Dani was standing next to the bar, her weight all on one hip. Behind her, in the living room, the star that Libby had put on top of the Christmas tree was at a height that made it look as if Dani were wearing it jauntily on her head.

“What’s going on?” Emma asked as she walked back to the fridge and opened it, removing a small container of nonfat Greek yogurt. She ate the same thing every day when she got up: one seventy-calorie container of nonfat Greek yogurt.

“Oh, I just came out to say hi,” Dani said cheerfully. “I feel like I’ve got a new lease on life. I hired a kid—Jacob Saddler, you know him?”

Emma had met Jacob at the fundraising 5k run Libby had put together to help buy Leo a new van. Jacob was still young enough to stare at Emma as if she were a creature from another planet.

“He’s going to work the front desk a few days a week so I can get out! Let me tell you, when Mr. Boxer was alive, I didn’t put in these long hours. I had a life. I had a garden and my knitting club.” Dani sighed and put her hands on her back and dipped backward. “It’s taking a toll—my back is killing me.”

“Oh no,” Madeline said, looking up from a pile of papers she was reading. “Maybe you should see a doctor?”

“Goodness, I don’t have time for doctors,” Dani said, but she winced as she eased down onto a stool. “They’re just going to want to cut into me. No sir, I’m not going for that. Give me a better idea.”

“Lose some weight. That would definitely help,” Emma opined. She opened a drawer and picked up a spoon. But as she closed the drawer, she realized that her remark had been met with complete silence. She looked at the other women.

All three were staring at her; Dani seemed a little stunned.

“Emma,” Madeline said low.

“What?” Emma dipped her spoon into the yogurt. “She said to give her a better idea. A doctor would say the same thing.”

“Then let the doctor say it,” Madeline muttered darkly.

“Oh, it’s all right,” Dani said, smiling again. “Emma’s right—I could stand to lose about twenty pounds.”

“I’d say more like forty,” Emma said, and licked her spoon. “I mean, if you want to help your back.”

“Oh my God,” Libby said to the open window.

“Dani, I am so sorry,” Madeline said, her blue eyes beseeching her friend.

Dani laughed, but it sounded a little strained. “I guess no one can ever say Emma doesn’t speak her mind,” Dani said briskly.

“No,” Libby said, and glared at Emma. “Definitely no one can say that.”

“What?” Emma asked, her spoon halting midair. “She asked!”

Libby shook her head, pushed her dark, curly hair from her face. It was a nervous gesture of hers, a memory that had come back to Emma after a few days of being around Libby. As girls, there had been a period of roughly eighteen months when Emma’s mother and father had reconciled and Emma and Libby had lived together. Funny, the things you remember about childhood. Emma couldn’t remember a single thing she and Libby did together, but remembered how nervous Libby would get when their father was around, and she’d push her curls from her face.

“Come on, I want to show you the picture of my wedding gown. It’s on the computer,” Madeline said. She stood up and gestured for Dani to go ahead of her into the adjoining room. She followed behind, and as she passed Emma, she glared at her beneath her dark bangs.

Emma finished her yogurt and turned toward the sink. That’s when she noticed Libby standing there, her arms folded, her head down. “May I ask you something?” Libby asked crisply. “Have you ever been tested for Asperger’s?”

Emma laughed with surprise, but in all honesty, she’d been asked that question before. “No. Have you?” She stepped around Libby to the sink.

“No. But I have a filter.”

“I have a filter,” Emma said defensively. “Maybe it’s not as good as yours, but I have one.”

“You do not! I don’t know why you do that,” Libby said, gesturing at the empty bar.

“Do what?”