Hannah was confused. Everyone she knew had a shower. “Don’t you want one?”

“It’s not that. It’s just that I’m new to the island and I don’t know many people. It’s okay. I don’t need one.”

Hannah hadn’t known Amelia for very long, but according to Agnes Dewey, gossip extraordinaire, Amelia didn’t have any family and grew up in the foster system. Whereas Hannah had grown up right here on the island where it was like she was part of a huge wonderful family. And when her father tragically died, all of the island’s residents had been there for her.

She could still recall how the whole island turned out for the funeral. Business that day had practically ground to a halt. And the casseroles had kept coming for weeks. When tragedy struck, the island pulled together. She couldn’t imagine how rough it would be to go through life alone.

“You leave the shower to me.” Hannah already had her hands full with renovating the old bakery to reopen next month, but help was what the people of Bluestar did for each other.

Amelia once more blushed. “I couldn’t ask you to do more. You’re already making the cake.”

“You aren’t asking. I’m offering. Do you have a list of wedding guests?”

“Yes, it’s…” Amelia sifted through the stack of papers on the table. “It was right here.” Halfway through the second stack, she smiled. “Here it is.”

Hannah glanced down over the list. Almost a hundred guests. All of them were residents of Bluestar. “Do you have a preference as to who is invited to the wedding shower?”

They went over the list and whittled it down to a reasonable number.

“Good,” Hannah said. “I’ll get back to you with the details.”

Hannah had a feeling this was just the beginning of a close friendship. Amelia was going to fit right in on Bluestar Island. She tucked the final notes for the cake and the guest list in her backpack and said goodbye.

She rushed out the door and moved toward her bicycle. It had come from her grandmother’s estate. With a rusty frame, two flat tires, and a torn seat, it’d been designated for the junk heap. But Hannah remembered her grandmother’s smile when she rode it around the island and knew she couldn’t part with it.

A little sanding followed by a coat of hot pink paint, new tires, and a replacement seat gave the bike new life. The woven basket on the front just needed to be cleaned and it looked like new. And just like her grandmother, Hannah couldn’t stop smiling when riding it.

She slung her backpack purse over her shoulders and then set off. It was finally time to check on the progress of the bakery. She hadn’t been able to make it there yesterday, as she’d had a large baking order and she’d been exhausted when she finished.

Each day the crew was making marked progress. A smile tugged at her lips. It was going to look amazing when it was finished.