She sat up suddenly when she heard Claire call her name. This was Sydney’s first day at work and Claire’s first day of watching Bay. Sydney hadn’t allowed Bay into the garden, but Claire said it was okay to be out here as long as she didn’t pick any of the flowers. Bay had been so excited to finally see the garden. She hoped she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I’m right here,” Bay called as she stood. She saw Claire standing at the other end of the garden by the gate. “I didn’t pick any flowers.”

Claire held up a casserole dish covered with aluminum foil. “I’m going over to Tyler’s to take him this. Come with me.”

Bay ran down the gravel pathway to Claire, glad that she was going to see Tyler again. When she and her mother had visited last time, he let her draw on an easel, and when she showed him what she’d drawn, he hung it on his refrigerator.

Claire closed and locked the gate behind them, and they walked around the house to Tyler’s yard. Bay walked close to Claire. She liked the way Claire smelled, comfortable, like kitchen soap and garden herbs. “Aunt Claire, why does the apple tree keep dropping apples on me?”

“It wants you to eat one,” Claire said.

“But I don’t like apples.”

“It knows that.”

“Why do you bury the apples?”

“So no one else will eat them.”

“Why don’t you want people to eat them?”

Claire hesitated a moment. “Because if you eat an apple from that tree, you’ll see what the biggest event in your life will be. If it’s good, you’ll suddenly know that everything else you do will never make you as happy. And if it’s bad, you’ll have to live the rest of your life knowing something bad is going to happen. It’s something no one should know.”

“But some people want to know?”

“Yes. But as long as the tree is in our yard, we get a say-so.”

They reached Tyler’s steps. “You mean it’s my yard too?”

“It’s very definitely your yard too,” Claire said, smiling. Just for a moment, Claire was Bay’s age, looking at her with the same happiness Bay felt, that happiness at simply belonging in a way she’d never belonged before.

“This is a pleasant surprise,” Tyler said when he opened the door. Claire had taken a deep breath before she knocked, and when she saw him she forgot to let it out. He was in a paint-splattered T-shirt and jeans. Sometimes her very skin felt so jumpy that she wanted to crawl out of her body. She wondered what a kiss from him would do. Help? Make it worse? He smiled, not looking at all put out that she’d shown up unannounced. That’s how she would feel. But he was, quite obviously, nothing like her. “Come in.”

“I made you a casserole,” she said breathlessly as she handed it to him.

“It smells delicious. Please, come in.” He stood back for them to enter, which was the last thing Claire wanted to do.