They’d reached the sand and Ashley pulled off her shoes and lifted her face to the sun for a moment. She glanced at Eden. “Joanna was nervous about coming tonight.”

“Because of Uncle Nate?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She curled her toes into the soft sand. “There was something yesterday—”

“Something?” Eden glanced at her and then shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s okay.”

“I want to.” She knew instinctively that she could trust Eden and it was bliss to talk to someone her own age. “Before I saw them together I had the sense it was a bad breakup. I mean, she doesn’t like to talk about him. But then I saw them together and wham—it was like a movie.”

Eden grinned. “I’m listening.”

“It was probably nothing. Maybe twenty years is too long to hold on to bad feeling.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it was something.” Eden looked thoughtful. “My mom once told me she was really shocked when they broke up. Joanna went off with Cliff the same day—not that I’m an expert, but that seems like rebound to me.”

“Me, too.”

“But Joanna came tonight—so that must mean something, too. If she’d wanted to avoid him, she wouldn’t be here, would she?”

Ashley gazed at the ocean. “She didn’t want to accept, but your mom was persistent.”

“That sounds like Mom.” Eden pulled a face. “She has set ideas about what’s best for everyone, and life’s usually easier if you go along with it. If you don’t—” she shrugged “—don’t expect an easy life. She tells me it’s time to be an adult, but then she tries to make all my decisions for me. It’s only okay for me to make my own decisions if she approves of them. Is your mom the same?”

“My mom is dead.”

“Crap.” Eden raised her hand in a gesture of apology. “Me and my big mouth again. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. And I get it.” Ashley thought about her own mother and all those years she’d kept the secret of Cliff. She’d said she’d done what she thought was best for Ashley, but was that really true or was she doing what was best for her? The question nagged at her. “I really do get it.”

Eden frowned. “You do?”