“I know it might sound funny,” Sherri said, “but I just love spending time with my family. My mom is in charge of the annual cookbook for the East Troy Lioness Club, and she knows everyone in town.” Ha! Sherri’s mother would never have joined the Lioness Club, not in a million years. She thought the local women were busybodies with nothing better to do than gossip and exchange recipes. In turn, they considered Muriel a foreigner because she was from New York. “Between my dad’s Rotary friends and my mom’s potlucks, and all my brothers, our house is practically as busy as this resort!”

After everything she’d been through, it felt so good to be someone else for a change, good to imagine herself surrounded by siblings in a close-knit, unmarred family. Sherri tried to think of more lies to tell Gloria, but before she could say anything else, Gloria asked, “You’re not planning to go to college, are you? You don’t strike me as a college girl.”

“No.” Even though she had been trying to be someone else, Gloria’s comment made her feel exposed; it was directed right at her, the real Sherri, and it hurt. Sherri was bored easily, but she’d been a good student, and she had a keen memory and proficiency with numbers. She could balance her father’s books when she was just eleven years old. At the restaurant, she could tally her tickets and tax without an adding machine. She received perfect scores in her business simulation accounting classes, but the teachers only praised the boys for their good work. She liked how numbers made sense, and she loved that feeling of correctness when they clicked, but everyone assumed Sherri was a dip because of her loud laugh and awkwardness—and so did Gloria, apparently, right at first glance.

“We aren’t so busy now, but by summer it’ll be a madhouse. I need someone who can live here and work year-round, someone reliable to pick up shifts and work doubles, even triples sometimes.”

“Oh, I can do all that. I’m a hard worker, I am. And I want to work here. The resort is so beautiful and classy.” Just saying it made Sherri realize this was true—she really did want to work there. Suddenly it seemed as if the job was the answer to everything. She smiled and said, “I have the heart of a Bunny.”

Later, on the drive back to East Troy, Roberta would die laughing when Sherri told her she’d said this, but Gloria seemed moved by the sentiment. She’d slipped off her watch and handed it to Sherri. “You’ll get a letter from me in a few days. When you come back, bring this with you, and don’t you dare lose it.”