Of course I do. But clearly I need to drink some of that water in Vermont.

Grayson has sisters… Beautiful sisters.

Hahaha. Shut up.

Emma was relieved to have avoided a possible rift with someone who was such a good friend. She was about to go back to work when her phone rang, displaying an 802 number she didn’t recognize, but she took the call since that was the Vermont area code.

“Emma, this is Linc Abbott. I hope I’m getting you at a good time.”

Surprised to hear from him, she said, “Hi there. This is a good time. What did we forget?”

He laughed. “Nothing that we’ve found yet, but if we do, we’ll let you know. I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m calling and how I got your number.”

“I assume you got it from Lucy.”

“You assume correctly, and I’m calling because I had an idea I wanted to run by you.”

“Okay…”

“I found out this morning that our longtime admin, Mary, is going to be leaving us in a couple of weeks.”

“Oh. Wow. That’s too bad. I know how much you all love her.”

“We really do, but she’s making some exciting plans for herself, so we’re happy for her.”

Emma’s mind raced as she tried to figure out what the heck any of this had to do with her.

“I wondered—and you can call me crazy if you want. You wouldn’t be the first to do that. But for some reason, when Mary told me her news, I immediately thought of you for the job.”

Emma felt weightless, like a trapdoor had opened beneath her, hurling her into the deep unknown, like Alice in Wonderland.

“Emma? Have I shocked you speechless?”

“You’ve certainly shocked me. Why me?”

“Well, Lucy is here most of the time these days, and I know how close you two are, and I thought that maybe, in light of other recent developments, you might like to be here. Not to mention, your daughter took to the place like a duck to water.”

Emma couldn’t deny that Simone absolutely loved Vermont. “I… um… I have no idea what to say.”

“I know this is totally out of the blue, and you should take all the time you need to think about it. It would be a big deal to uproot yourself and your little girl, and I don’t want you to feel any obligation. I had the idea, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to run it by you.”

“I’m incredibly flattered that you thought of me.” And shocked and stunned and elated and depressed, because she already knew she couldn’t consider the opportunity, not as long as her dad would be left behind if she and Simone moved north.