“Rafferty.” Joanna picked up her flip-flops. “I’m changing my name back to Rafferty. I’m tired of linking my life with Cliff’s. I’m tired of talking about Cliff! Tell me about Eden. She seems great. You must be very proud.”

“Worried and anxious mostly. I guess that’s being a parent.” Remembering the miscarriage, Mel shook her head. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be. And I’m sure being a parent is very anxiety inducing. I’m worried about Ashley and she isn’t even mine. What’s your biggest worry?”

Mel hesitated. “You don’t want to hear about this.”

“I do. I want to know everything.”

And that was friendship, wasn’t it? Listening, when listening was hard. Being there, when it might have been more comfortable to walk away.

“Sometimes I feel as if she does the opposite of what I want her to do.”

“To make a point?” Joanna slid the bag over her shoulder and they walked up the steps to Otter’s Nest.

“Yes. As if she’s throwing down a challenge. At the moment she doesn’t want to go to college, she wants to stay home and hang out on the beach because life is short, and surfing is her dream, and we should all live our dreams, which I wouldn’t yada yada.”

“And you have a problem with that?”

“Yes. A big problem.” Mel stopped. “Or maybe I don’t. It’s more that I’m worried she hasn’t thought it through. That it isn’t what she really wants at all, but she’s just choosing that path to flex her independence.”

“You mean she wants to do the opposite of what you want her to do?”

“Feels that way. I’m worried she’s going to make bad choices. Do something she’ll regret.”

“What if she does? Isn’t that life? A bad choice often doesn’t seem bad at the time. And I speak from experience.”

Mel tried to imagine how she’d feel if Eden did what Joanna had done. But that wouldn’t happen, because Joanna had no support at home, but Eden knew she was loved and supported. Didn’t she? She felt a moment of panic. What if she didn’t know? What if she felt she couldn’t talk to her mother?

“So what would you tell your younger self?”