The two of them wove their way through the various sandcastles in progress. Clara didn’t know that Evie had ever been afraid of the water. She’d been too young to remember it, and Sawyer had kept their recent swimming lessons to himself. He watched them step gingerly over the pebbly stretch of beach and laugh and chat as they waded in.

It was funny to see them like that. Evie had always been kind to his sister. He had the idea that other girls might have resented boyfriends who came with little kids attached, but not her. She had always made room for Clara, both literally and figuratively. She would organize berry picking outings and present Clara with a special kid-size bucket emblazoned with whatever cartoon character was Clara’s current favorite. She would let Clara help with the resultant jam making, even though Clara’s “help” was anything but.

To see them together today, with Clara all grown up, plucked some tender, loose part of his insides he hadn’t realized was so vulnerable. If he and Evie had stayed together, maybe they would’ve ended up exactly here, getting ready to send Clara away for school.

But no. Those were useless thoughts. He reminded himself how happy he had been to hear that Evie had gone not just to college but to grad school. That she’d become the librarian she’d always wanted to be. That would not have happened unless she’d left.

He reminded himself how she always kept referring to them as friends with benefits. She would text him booty calls with that line she’d accidentally used that first time, Hello, friend, I need some benefits.

So if he was getting grumpy about having to say goodbye again soon, that was his own doing. He sighed.

The lake was crowded, and Evie and Clara stopped to talk to Eiko and Pearl, who were in the water even though he was pretty sure they were supposed to be helping Karl judge the contest.

After a few minutes, they extricated themselves and continued out. Soon they were just two heads bobbing in the waves. Getting farther and farther away from him.

As metaphors went, it was pretty heavy-handed. But that didn’t make it any less apt.

“I have a favor to ask,” Clara said to Eve after their swim.

“Sure.” Eve was still marveling that here she was, casually toweling off after a swim like it was no big deal.

“You know how Sawyer is taking me to Toronto at the end of August?”

“Yep.”

“He’s moving me in and staying the night in a hotel. I was kind of hoping he’d drive back the same day, but he says he’ll be too tired. Which I get, but…”

“You don’t want him to stay overnight?”

“I just…I think it’s going to be hard for him to say goodbye.”

“Ah.” Sweet Clara. She wasn’t wrong.