We stepped through the entrance; I waved to Dylan, perched at one of the high tables near the counter, his face covered in chocolate frosting. I cringed as he dunked a snickerdoodle into a huge glass of chocolate milk with his whole hand. “Finn gave me a brownie and a snickerdoodle. I couldn’t decide, so he gave me both! I love it here! I’m glad we’ll be living here forever.”

I shook my head. “Dylan, your chocolate face matches your chocolate-covered eyeballs.” I always teased him about his big, brown eyes, just like his father’s eyes.

“I think he got more frosting on his face than in his mouth, Aunt Lily.” Nick laughed as I hugged him.

“Hey, Finn, come over here and hug your aunt.”

With a grin, he came out from behind the counter to give me a hug. Violet’s sons were both tall, just over six feet, with brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes just like Violet’s.

“Aunt Lily, are you getting shorter?” Finn teased and patted my head.

“Nope, I’m still a statuesque five feet and two inches. You must be getting taller. Stop growing,” I ordered and pointed up at his face. “Rose and I will be the shortest members of this family once all the kids turn into teens,” I said as I passed through the tables to the fluffy, pillow-covered purple sofa at the rear of the store and sat next to my dad. He leaned over, gave me a hug, then sat back into the corner of the couch to prop his feet on the dark wooden coffee table. Violet sat in the brown leather chair perpendicular to the couch. After exchanging a look they both stared at me.

What the heck was going on?

“She’s about to get pissed,” Violet said to my dad. They started to look nervous and I started to get worried.

“Just tell me.” I sighed and flopped back against the cushions.

After inhaling a huge breath, Violet finally started talking. “Lily, none of us told you this before you moved back because we were worried about you. The bed rest, the hard pregnancy, Will’s death. We didn’t want to cause you any more stress.” My husband, Will, had been a police officer. After pulling over to help a stranded motorist a hit-and-run driver ran Will down, killing him. The driver still hadn’t been caught. A week later I had discovered I was pregnant with Calla. To say I was “stressed” at that time was an understatement. I had spent the last almost year and a half in a state of perpetual confusion laced with grief, just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to think too hard about anything.

“Honey, Luke is back in town. He’s here to stay.” It was my father who decided to drop the bomb rather than Violet.

Holy crap.