She nibbled her thumbnail. This was a time to act. Was she supposed to grab a hammer and start boarding up windows? Ethan might be able to do it, but he wasn’t exactly a handy guy. She paced the floor. What good was walking going to do? It was like a dragon menaced them and she was a stupid damsel in distress in her perfect coastal cottage with nothing but some water and a few bars of chocolate.

She sent a text to Renee.

Feeling a little freaked about this storm—how about you?

It took a moment for her friend to respond.

Not SUPER worried yet… Come over here if you get nervous though, ok?

Well, that was a comforting thought anyway. She could always ride the storm out with Renee if things got really bad. Sadie set down her phone. At the very least she needed to go search for some flashlights and batteries. But they were in the garage. And the last time she went in there she was chased by a spider.

Okay, maybe it was just scuttling off to make a new web, but it felt like it wanted her blood.

Suppressing a shiver, she took Grandma Hester’s worn diary out of her back pocket. She’d been carrying it around with her everywhere, and at this point, she’d read it so many times, she practically had it memorized.

Sinking into the couch, she cradled it on her lap, treating each word, sentence, and paragraph with utter importance, maybe even reverence. She searched the entries for some sort of direction.

Sadie still couldn’t get over the fact that Grandma had wanted to open a pie shop and then never seen her dream come to life.

Maybe Sadie’s mom, Hester’s daughter, would have some answers.

“Hi, sweetheart.” Melissa answered on the third ring, slightly breathless. “Just got back from a committee meeting at the Smithsonian. Did I tell you about it yet? It’s quite engaging.”

“I think you mentioned it.” There was so much Sadie wanted to unload, from Ethan, to the storm, to the pie shop venture. But she was on a mission.

“So, I found Grandma’s diary. It was in this funky old steamer trunk in the attic that was full of photographs, recipes, that kind of stuff.”

“The trunk Mom and Dad always kept in their bedroom? I searched for it after they died but I figured they’d unloaded it at some point.”

“Nope, it was in the attic.”

“Odd. Wonder how it got up there. That thing must have weighed a ton. But you found Grandma’s diary, huh? She was such a character, Mom was. Anything scandalous?”

Sadie smiled. “No, nothing like that. It’s mainly just little summaries of her days. But I want to know more about Grandma’s bakery idea.” She paused, giving her mom a chance to jump in.

But her mom was silent.