“Yes, moira. Fate, destiny. It’s small, but Penny and I don’t need much space. Over the years, I thought about selling the condo and buying a bigger house, but the prices got more and more out of reach. And truly, we travel so much, it didn’t seem worth the headache. I didn’t anticipate the summer rental market. I could have made a fortune renting the place out all summer and paid for the rest of the year.”

“Who knew?” Abigail said, remaining unconvinced that there was really a rental market here. Didn’t the rich people in California already live on the beach?

“I met a couple from New York who rent here now because he said the Hamptons was too noisy with all the hedge trimmers and helicopters,” Alexa said.

“Imagine.” And Abigail couldn’t because the truth was she’d never been to the Hamptons. When you lived on the water in Connecticut, why travel to be on the water on Long Island?

“When I bought here, Montecito was a small, sleepy town. Filled with real people, who had lived here for generations or wanted to build that kind of life for their family. But once the town got Paltrowed, as they say, the values changed, both the real estate values and other values. But, where I live, not much has changed. I know my neighbors. We watch out for each other and share herbs from our gardens and citrus from our trees. My street remains simple, like the town used to be. I walk to Butterfly Beach, where I swim or watch the sunset. It’s lovely. Small, but lovely.”

“It must remind you of home,” Abigail said, trying for the first time to break through the polite professional exterior of Alexa Diamandis to get to something personal.

“Yes, the best parts of Patmos. The blue water, the blue sky, the beauty. The heat that comes from the ground up into your bones. The fragrance in the air. It’s why I stayed here all those years ago when I could have moved to Los Angeles. Montecito represents both the familiar and the possibilities. Still.”

Abigail nodded. She was comfortable with the familiar, but not so much with the possibilities.

Ming joined them, dressed for another activity beyond lounging at home. She was headed to the clubhouse for Thursday Night Bingo. She poured a short glass of wine and lifted her glass in a toast. “We’re so glad to meet you, Abigail! And to welcome you to town. On behalf of the Merry Widows, we want you to know how much we love Penny and we know that you’ll love having her in your family. We can’t wait to meet Chase. Cheers to them both.”