“Same here.” The siblings had planned to spend a week together before Andrea began her new position, but the company moved up her start date. “And what are you talking about? I was here for Thanksgiving.”

“Ha! Is that what you called it? You were here about as long as a flight layover. You got in on Wednesday evening and were gone Friday morning. And please don’t try to tell me you had to work because nobody works the day after Thanksgiving unless you’re in retail with all the Black Friday sales.”

Okay, he’d concede to her that point. Growing up, Gabriel had never taken to the town and whenever his family visited, he’d been ready to leave almost immediately. For a city boy, those week-long visits to a place where everything shut down when the streetlights came on had lasted a week too long in his estimation.

“By the way, Serenity said she’d be available if you needed help with anything.”

“That’s nice of her, but I should be able to manage. I would like to take a bottle of wine for dinner. Do you know what she likes?”

“That’s a great idea. I’ll text you the names of a few.”

“Thanks, Sis. I need to get going. I want to do some grocery shopping before picking up Nana.” Last night he’d stopped at a store in Oakland and bought only enough to get him through the night.

“All right. Let me know how it goes. I promise I won’t call you for at least a week,” she added with a giggle.

Gabriel smiled. “Liar. You won’t be able to hold out until Monday.” With their parents gone, he’d become even more protective of her, and they rarely went a week without talking, either by text, phone, or FaceTime.

“Oh, hush. You wouldn’t know what to do if you didn’t hear my lovely voice on the regular.”

He laughed. “Yeah, whatever. You’re a pain in the butt sometimes, but I love you anyway.”

“You’d better. Love you, big brother. Later.”

Gabriel disconnected and thought about how proud he was of his sister. When their parents had died in a car accident eight years ago, Andrea hadn’t hesitated in packing up and moving to Firefly Lake. Their parents had purchased this house so their family would have somewhere to stay during their semiannual visits when Nana and Grandpa’s small two-bedroom home had become too cramped as he and Andrea had gotten older. His parents had eventually relocated to the town a few years before their deaths, shortly after Grandpa passed away. He took another glance around. Although he had always been in a rush to get back to Atlanta then, he had to admit there had been a lot of laughter between these walls.