“Your theory is that I’ll make at least one lasting friend. If not this year, then next year, and if not next year, then the year after, and if not then, well…maybe I already have that kind of friend.”
She came up with this all on her own. It’s a theory with a positive outcome no matter what happens. We’re both smiling, and we’re both in tears again.
“That’s a brilliant theory if I ever heard one,” I say.
She laughs.
I laugh.
We hop off the desk together, and I hug my daughter.
“I love you so much, Mom.”
“I love you just as much.” We nuzzle noses again, and then when we break apart, she’s lighter on her feet. She picks up her bag.
“I can help. Do you need me to carry your duffel? I can walk you to the cabin?”
“No. I think I want to do this on my own.” She slings the duffel and tucks her sleeping bag beneath her arm. “Will you come say goodbye?”
I gasp. “You think I wouldn’t?”
She smiles. “No, I know you would.” I want to make sure she’s settled with her bunk and take some photos before we leave.
Sullivan clasps the door and waves to her little sister. “See you, squirt.”
Winona rolls off her beanbag. “Bye!” She has no clue Sulli won’t be around for a whole month, or else she’d be crying and grabbing onto Sulli’s legs. Ryke already prepared for a tantrum on the ride home. He bought two chocolate bars for me. Because chocolate is the cure to most things.
Cake is the cure to everything.
“Sulli,” I say before she goes. “You may see your dad out there.” I think he most likely went to test the rock wall, confirming that all the anchors are secure. He usually does this every summer, and some years, he’ll fill in as the climbing instructor for a week or during Spirit Days. “Just to warn you, he’ll want a hug before you leave and he may cry.”
Sulli smiles again.
“Oh and he may not want to leave you, so you’ll have to try and convince him to come home with me.”
She laughs. “It won’t be hard. Dad loves you like…so much.”
I love him like so much too.
And then she’s out the door. I watch her through the door’s window, walking to the Red Poppy cabin alone and brave. So brave. Because every camper probably knows who she is before she even introduces herself. In the same breath, she has no idea who they are.
It’s unequal footing, but if there’s anyone who has the endurance and will to pull themselves higher—it’s Sullivan Minnie Meadows.
Just like her dad.
*
Outside, I sit on the wooden steps of the director’s office, Winona between my legs. She picks at my ankle bracelets and tries to unknot one. I wait for Ryke so we can say goodbye to Sulli.
Loren Hale leans against an oak tree only about fifteen feet away, his attention cast towards the White Rose cabins. Pretty far from here. I catch sight of Moffy’s shirt: a Vic Whistler logo from The Fourth Degree comics on the back. He talks with two other boys by those cabins.
I say aloud, “Accurate depiction of saying goodbye: hey, Daisy, this is going to suck as bad as you suck—”
“Whoa,” Lo cuts in, his gaze cemented on me. He points towards his black crew neck shirt. “Not your husband.”
I mock gasp. “You’re not? You look a lot like him.”
Lo flashes a dry smile and then says to Winona, “Your mom thinks she’s really funny.”
“Because she is!” Winona shouts.
I smile, and Lo feigns hurt. “Winona, you just pierced my heart.”
Winona tugs at my ankle bracelet and mumbles, “That’s because I’m a crab.”
Lo gives me a look like this child is one-hundred percent mine. “I thought I had a monkey for a niece?”
“Oh no, she’s a crab now.”
“Goddamn.”
Winona hears curse words too often to even flinch at that one.
Lo straightens off the tree, and he must remember the heart of what I said before. “The first time is the worst because you’re not sure if they like it or not, but Moffy couldn’t wait to come back. For a kid that isn’t very trusting of anyone, he was excited to go to a place populated by his peers. That’s something, Daisy. What you created, it’s good. It’s really goddamn good.”
I brighten with my features. “Thanks, Lo. That means a lot.”
“Hold onto it because I only give one compliment a year and you just hit your limit.”
I act like I grab the compliment out of the air and pocket it in my bra. I pat my chest. “Safe keeping.” I’d literally do this with only Lo or Ryke—Ryke because he understands my humor the best. Lo because of his what the hell reactions.
He grimaces. “Now I have to bleach my brain when I get home.”
I wince. “Sounds painful.”
“Not as painful as other things…” His gaze and voice drifts towards the lake. Ryke said that November had been the worst month for his little brother, but he persevered.
Jonathan Hale left his house specifically to Lo. He was the one who grew up in those four walls, who had memories in each room. Ryke said that Lo wanted to part ways with the home—that it was a past he could revisit but ultimately one he knew he had to leave behind.
In March, Lo found the strength to walk through his father’s house.
In April, he sold it.
The rest of Jonathan’s other assets were split between his three children, per his request.
If you saw Lo now, you wouldn’t find a weight on his shoulders. You wouldn’t see burden or torment behind his amber eyes. He stares towards the lake like he’s met the pain he mentioned, but today and tomorrow, all he feels is free.
He only turns when Ryke emerges on the dirt path, caring a huge tree trunk. About eight-feet long.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lo shakes his head in disbelief. “Did you stumble into a time warp and come out as a lumberjack? Bring back my brother.” He teasingly shoves Ryke’s shoulder.
Ryke almost smiles and sets the tree trunk on the ground. Bark flakes off.
“Look at the size of that log.” I wag my brows at my husband. “What is it, eight, nine, ten-inches?” I zero in on his crotch.
Ryke raises his brows at me. “Hey, Calloway?”
“Yeah?”
“Wrong log.”
I feel my smile pull my scar. “But it’s my favorite.”
Lo scrunches his nose, his head swinging between Ryke and me. “I’m still in earshot, raisins. Wait until I’ve left before this begins.” Then he points to the log. “Seriously, bro, what the fuck?”
“It was rotting,” Ryke says. “I didn’t want it to fucking fall on anyone.” Lo can act like his brother is crazy, but when it comes to safety of little kids, he can be even more cautious.
“My brother,” Lo declares and then tilts his head to me. “You’ve married this person, you realize that?”
I look to Ryke while he looks to me. His darkened features conceal a million dangerous adventures. Ones that we’ve taken together. Where we’re anything but alone. His lips begin to lift higher and higher. I pick up our wiggly two-year-old in my arms, and his smile touches his eyes.
You’ve married this person, you realize that?
It’s a familiar question from Lo but with a new twist. Usually he asks Ryke if he realized who he married. I grin right at Lo because he knows me and loves me for reasons beyond bringing his brother happiness. He loves me for me.
“What?” Lo asks me like I’m the strangest person in the world. I just grin more, and he throws up his hands. “You know what, don’t tell me. You’re probably grinning because the sun is in the sky.” He nods to his older brother. “You know who you married, right?”
Never leaving me, Ryke says, “That I fucking do.”
[ 49 ]
July 2026
The Lake House
Smoky Mountains
ROSE COBALT
“I declare this a sworn pact between Calloway sisters and our honorary sister, Willow Hale.” I raise a sharp knife, and my three sisters and Willow exchange wary glances. We’ve gathered in the kitchen, a baby monitor close by and our youngest four girls in a living room playpen together.