He laughed, big and loud. “Your family sure knows how to hold a grudge.”

“Nate,” Sylvia said. “Addison dropped off flowers from Maura. From their shadow garden. Be nice.”

“I’m always nice.” His grin—petunias blooming purple with resentment—unsettled Addison. “Want some swag? Tell the gift shop you can have whatever you’d like—on me.”

Before she could decline, the door at the opposite end of the catwalk opened wide. River stepped through it in a black T-shirt marked with the Bonner’s logo. Addison’s heart dropped, and when her eyes met his, it sank further.

“I was hoping your apprentice would be here,” Sylvia said. “River, this is Addison.”

“We’ve met.” His eyes flashed.

“I didn’t realize…” Sylvia trailed off, then shook her head. “But of course you have. Elena’s grandson, Maura’s granddaughter. Weren’t you two dating at one point?”

River gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “At one point.” Then with a short nod in Addison’s direction he said, “Good to see you.”

Addison knew she should block out his emotions, but she couldn’t help herself.

River was all anger and bitterness. It wasn’t pure hatred, but it might as well have been. If his bosses hadn’t been standing there, she could tell he would’ve been out that door in a heartbeat.

Nate glanced between the two of them. “We’ve got quite a lot to do here. Hope the rest of the tour is as exciting as this has been.”

“No worries at all,” Addison said. “I actually need to get going. Thanks for showing me around, Mrs. Bonner.”

“Please,” she said. “Call me Sylvia.”

“And Addison?” Nate called from the catwalk.

She glanced up at him, trying not to let tears fall.

“Tell your mom I said hello.”

Addison didn’t allow herself to think as she ran back to her car and sped away as fast as possible. It wasn’t until she’d pulled back onto her family’s land that she let herself breathe freely.

“We’ve met,” she mumbled to herself. “What an absolute dick.”

Instead of heading out to the shadow garden, she knelt right out front beside her grams’s tomatoes, taking her frustration out on the weeds that had the audacity to try and make a home there. She gripped one with her full hand, then cursed when she realized it was a yellow thistle rather than a dandelion. She stuck her pricked fingers in her mouth. When they finally stopped throbbing, she grabbed her gloves from her pocket, tugged them on, and mercilessly pulled it from the ground.

“Serves you right, masquerading as a harmless weed.”

“You’re back later than I expected,” Maura said as the screen door slammed shut behind her and she stepped onto the front porch with a mint-filled pitcher. “Lemonade?”

“Please,” Addison said.

“Sylvia put you in this state?”