“I tried Rowan’s banana muffin recipe and nearly blew us all up,” Winnie said. “He was so great in the kitchen.” She bit her lower lip. “Sometimes I forget he’s gone.”

Piper felt her heart squeeze. “I’m sorry, Win.”

“I know you didn’t like him. You thought he was a bad influence on me.”

He’d been a terrible influence, introducing Winnie to a partying lifestyle that Piper hadn’t approved of, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like him. She had. He’d been fun-loving, charismatic, and sweet. “He was a good kid. I know you miss him.”

Winnie nodded. “I do. And since baking no longer holds any appeal, and I suck at cooking in general, I’m going to stick to what I’m good at—fixing things.”

“You’re good at fixing things?”

“I’m learning. And Emmitt taught me a little bit about gardening. I thought I’d help with the vegetable patch.”

“Grandma’s vegetable patch?” Piper asked. “The one no one’s maintained for years?”

Winnie shrugged. “Thought it’d be nice.”

“But we don’t know the first thing about gardening.”

“Duh. That’s what YouTube’s for.” Hopping up to sit on the counter, Winnie began flipping through a stack of bills. “And yikes, we’re poor.”

“Like that’s anything new,” Piper said, still taking in the devastation zone.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Winnie said. “The oven’s messed up.”

“I’ll put a new oven on my list for Santa.”

“It looks like a bomb went off in here.” Gavin shook his head. “She got that from you.”

“Well, excuse me,” Winnie said. “We can’t all be neat freaks.”

“How about just neat? Can you all be just neat?”

This was an age-old argument between the three of them. Gavin hated a messy house, but especially a messy kitchen. Funny, because he didn’t object to having a messy life.

“Why are you guys up so early?” Piper asked.

“Cam finished fixing Emmitt’s boat yesterday. So Emmitt took us fishing,” Winnie said.

Piper laughed at the idea of her siblings getting up early on purpose. “Come on.”

“It’s true,” Winnie said. “The sunrise was gorg.”

“Yeah. Probably because it was the first time you’ve ever seen one.”

Gavin laughed and bumped fists with Piper.

“Hey,” Winnie said, pouting. “I’ve seen a sunrise. Once. When I got the stomach flu and was up all night puking . . .”

“That was a hangover,” Piper said.

“Oh. Right.”

Piper looked at Gavin. He was still smiling, looking young and carefree, and it pinched her heart. “And you. You used to hate mornings.”

He shrugged. “I caught us dinner. You’ll love it.”