“So, I mean—” Avery paused, like someone about to step onto ice and wondering if it would give way and drown her in frozen waters “—presumably he likes her or he wouldn’t have brought her home to meet you. Meeting the kids is kind of a big deal.”

How could a few words crush you?

She’d been trying to minimize it in her head. “Maybe.”

“I guess it’s not so surprising. Your dad is kinda hot.”

Charlie made a choking sound. “That’s gross.”

“I mean for an older man. And don’t pretend you haven’t noticed.”

Izzy longed for an ejector seat. She wanted to shoot herself out of the house, preferably to another planet. “This conversation is getting weird.”

“Will she be going with you to England for your summer vacation?”

“What? No, of course not.” She hadn’t even thought of that, but she was thinking of it now and it made her dizzy. Flora at Lake Lodge? No way. Every year since Izzy was born they’d spent three weeks of the summer in the beautiful English Lake District with her mother’s best friend and her family. Aunt Clare was her godmother. Their lakeside vacation was one of the highlights of Izzy’s life. Exercise and excitement. Freedom and fresh air. Aiden.

I love you, Izzy. Always have.

Thinking about him calmed her a little. She hadn’t shared the detail of last summer with anyone. Would she have done so if her mother hadn’t died? She wasn’t sure. At the time it had seemed too special and precious to share as a morsel of gossip. Her friends talked about boys the way they talked about mascara, comparing and contrasting qualities. Izzy didn’t see Aiden that way. He wasn’t one of those boys who was waiting for the right moment to shove his hand up your dress. When her bike had broken down, he’d fixed it. She could have fixed it herself the way her dad had taught her, but she’d liked the fact that he was prepared to get oil on his skin and sweat on his clothes to help her. She’d been convinced what they had was special, but time had eroded that conviction along with many others. Special last summer didn’t mean special now, did it? Feelings changed. She wanted to turn the clock back to the time when her mother was alive, to the summer Aiden had told her he loved her and she’d believed him. To a time when life seemed simple and her thoughts were full of Aiden, and college, and possibilities.

If she’d known how much her life was about to change, she would have savored each second. The thought of not going to Lake Lodge and seeing Aiden again made her feel something close to desperation.