Neve set about opening tea bags and filling their cups. She found honey in the pantry and then added a dollop of half-and-half to each cup. Finally, she brought the honey and the steaming cups to the table. “Dab a little honey on the welts. It actually helps to heal.”

“You want to live here?” Olivia asked, nodding her thanks as her sister pushed one cup toward her.

“I want a fresh start,” Neve said, sipping from her cup. The tea bag tag fluttered against the side of the chipped mug that had been given to participants of the Mount Larsen Art Festival. “If Dad is moving back in, I don’t want to live with them. I don’t have a job right now. I’ve been filling in at Tonya Stillman’s salon when they have events. I thought about opening my own place here or seeing if someone in town might have a stall for me to rent. I could pay you some rent? Or maybe you could finance the house for me and it could eventually become mine? Or not. But I wouldn’t mind living here for a while. Maybe forever. I forgot how much I liked it here. There are good memories here, you know.”

Olivia did.

But there were also memories that broke her heart. Memories she didn’t want to talk about, didn’t want to resurface like an old air bubble in a shipwreck, rising to the top long after it should have come up. Olivia still tried to press the bad down because she wasn’t sure she could live with herself if she let it all come completely undone. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”

Neve bit her lower lip, pausing to seemingly gather her thoughts. This was new for Neve. Usually she said exactly what she thought, feelings be damned. “It’s a big decision. Maybe you could think about it?”

Olivia looked down at her sister’s hands. Neve had turned forty last year. She’d been divorced for many years, stuck taking care of their mother, financially unstable because of the poor choices she’d made. Maybe her sister deserved a do-over, but Olivia wasn’t sure she wanted to sell this cabin to her sister. Or if she even wanted Neve here. Her sister’s track record wasn’t the greatest. Right now, Neve thought she wanted to live in Cotter’s Creek, but three months from now, she might decide the isolation was too much and head back to her old stomping grounds. Such was Neve. “I’ll think about it.”

Neve nodded. “I appreciate that, Liv.”

Olivia couldn’t remember a time when she and her sister had had such a lengthy conversation. Or a time when Neve had been so agreeable. Of course, her sister wanted something from her. So perhaps that was the reason behind her ministrations moments before. But Olivia hoped it wasn’t.