I hauled the box off the kitchen counter and set it on the floor. Harriet’s kitchen was stocked to the gills with the best gadgets and gizmos money could buy. I wouldn’t need duplicates of everything I already had, so off to Habitat For Humanity it was going.

I picked up a platter from the island, smiling down at it. There were two sets of handprints. Mine and Harriet’s. She’d taken me to the paint-your-own-pottery place in town not long after I’d moved in with her, wanting us to do something special to mark the occasion. We’d made this platter, where our handprints had been turned into flowers.

The paint job was sloppy. The leaves looked more like blobs, and the bee looked more like a rabid bird. But Harriet had told me that the mess was part of the fun, that we were making a memory, and that’s what mattered. I lifted the plate, hugging it to my chest. “I wish you were still here. God, I could use one of our swing sessions right about now.”

I wanted to tell her about the baby and ask for her wisdom on how to break the news to Crosby. But most of all, I wanted the comfort of her presence. I closed my eyes, hugging the platter harder as if that might make her come alive. I sighed as my eyes opened. I couldn’t bring Harriet back. But she was all around me. In her favorite garden beds and the antique treasures she’d collected to celebrate the island’s history. In the scarred butcher block in the kitchen, where each nick told the story of time spent together or in care of the ones she loved. But most of all, she was in the bones of every structure of this estate, the safe place she had created for a girl who’d had no real home. Her spirit would live on in this home and in me.

I grinned down at the plate, setting it back on the counter. Part of Harriet’s wishes were already coming true. I was going to build a family here. My hand went to my belly. “You and me, B. It’s going to be a hell of an adventure.”

A knock sounded at the door, and I glanced at my watch. It was too early for Crosby, but my stomach did a flip nonetheless, wondering if he’d wrapped things up ahead of schedule. I pulled the door open to find someone who was definitely not Crosby. “Janet. What are you doing here?”

She tossed her red hair over one shoulder. “I just came to tell my baby girl goodbye. I’m heading back to the mainland. This island is too claustrophobic.”