Ashley felt awkward. “It’s totally fine. I mean, it’s not fine, obviously, it’s crap—” she sent Joanna an apologetic look “—but it is what it is.”

Bess bounded over at that moment, followed by Nate.

“Drinks? What can I get you?”

Ashley decided that the friction between Eden and Mel wasn’t going to make for a comfortable evening and she was desperate for this to work out. Joanna needed to spend time with Mel and Nate, didn’t she?

She saw the surfboards propped against the wall and glanced at Eden. “You surf?”

“Since I was five years old. My dad taught me.”

“That’s cool. Can you get to the beach from here?”

“Through the gate.” Eden hesitated. Met her gaze. “Do you want to take a look? I can show you.”

“I’d love that, if it’s okay with you.”

“It’s more than okay.” Eden’s tension eased. “Give me five minutes to shower and change.”

She emerged exactly five minutes later. She was wearing shorts and a bright blue T-shirt, and her hair was still wet from the shower.

With Mel’s request that they be back in time to eat ringing in their ears, they headed to the gate.

“Sorry about my mom.” Eden pushed open the gate. “She can be a bit intense. Like everything has to be exactly the way she wants it. No one is allowed free will. At least, I’m not.”

“I get it. That’s a mother-daughter thing.” Ashley glanced at Eden. “Your mom was kind to me yesterday. She was the one who helped me. Did she tell you?”

“She hasn’t told me anything, but we didn’t see each other yesterday.” Eden closed the gate behind her. “Helped you how?”

“You saw the pictures. Read what they wrote about me. I was trying to leave Silver Point. I didn’t want to make things worse for Joanna, so I thought that was best. I was feeling pretty low.” She still couldn’t believe she’d gone from there to here. “I was standing on Main Street trying to figure out what to do when Mel spotted me. She called your dad and he picked me up and took me to the Surf Café. Then they called Joanna.”

“I didn’t know that. But Mom and I don’t talk much about anything at the moment.”

“Your mom and Joanna were best friends once, did you know that?”

Eden shrugged. “She mentioned it sometimes whenever there was a new story on Joanna. Joanna used to date my uncle Nate, which is kind of weird to be honest. But it was a long time ago. They broke up. I don’t know the details.”

It was difficult, she knew, to see your parents as individual beings with a whole life history of their own.