Agnes paused with a stack of table mats in her hand. “Another update?”

“No. This time it’s Brittany. She fell on the archaeological dig in Greece. She’s broken her wrist.” She pulled a face and sent a text back. “Poor Brit. You know how active she is—she’ll go crazy with her right hand out of use.”

“What’s her plan?”

“To come home while she heals and then make some life decisions. Her postgraduate work at Oxford University has finished. This dig was something she was doing for fun while she decided what to do next.” Emily absorbed the implications of that. “Looks like I might have need of Tilly’s services sooner than expected.”

“Brittany wouldn’t want you to move out. I wouldn’t rush into anything.” Agnes looked vague. “Something might turn up.”

Emily, who believed in structuring her life as much as she could, wasn’t reassured. “I’m sure we can stay with Brittany for a while, but I feel, for Lizzy’s sake, it’s time we found somewhere that’s ours. I want her to have security.” She wanted Lizzy to have everything she’d never had herself. “I’ve enrolled her in school for September. She might even have Rachel as her teacher.”

Agnes’s face softened. “Lucky Lizzy. That girl has the sweetest nature. When Ryan was injured I couldn’t drag Rachel from the hospital. Those two are very close. For weeks, she slept in the chair, and when he started the long rehabilitation process, she was the one bullying him into doing those exercises and pushing a little harder each day.”

“He’s very protective of her.”

“Always has been. He took some serious teasing in school for looking out for his little sister. I remember one time the class had to take the thing they loved most into school for show-and-tell. It was meant to be a toy or a book. Rachel insisted on taking Ryan. They had to excuse him from math so he could sit on the mat with her. His friends gave him hell over that one, but he showed up, anyway.” Agnes’s eyes misted. “Oh, that little girl loved her big brother. He was a hero to her, and I’ve never seen anyone so patient as he was with his sister.”

The lump in Emily’s throat made it difficult to swallow. “He’s been great with Lizzy. That day we went sailing, he was so patient with her.” And she had to keep reminding herself that it had been a happy afternoon, that was all. Just because he was good with Lizzy, didn’t mean he wanted to do it more often.

There was no room in life for dreaming.

She picked up a painting from the floor and paused, scanning the beautiful beach scene. “Is this one of Skylar’s?”