Mia nodded. "I can't imagine. She wasn't even much older than you when she got pregnant. She had your mother at seventeen, but she was only sixteen when she got pregnant. Can you imagine how terrifying that must've been?"

Evie wanted to cry. Putting herself in her grandmother’s position made her think about all of it so differently. What would she do if she were in a similar situation? How would she ever give her baby away to strangers? She had a hard time even donating her old clothes to the local thrift store.

"We have to get Mom to read this. It's the closest thing she'll have to hearing her mother's words about her."

"In her own time, Evie. Don't push."

They continued going through the box, finding several other journals from different times in Charlene's life. From the time that she gave her baby away to the days after that. Then they were happy journals from when she met Bobby. But there was a whole huge chunk of time from when she got pregnant with Mia that was missing. Literally, it was like entire journals were gone. Mia felt let down judging by the look on her face.

"We must be missing something. Are you sure there aren't any other journals in there?"

Evie shook her head. "No. Maybe there's another box?"

"Or maybe she just didn't feel the need to journal about me,” Mia said, sadly.

"I don't know. It seems like she liked to journal about everything. I think we must be missing one or two."

"Maybe. Well, I was going to make some lunch. Do you want anything?"

"Sure. I could eat a sandwich. I'll be down shortly," Evie said.

Mia walked out of the room, leaving Evie to stare at the pile of journals and poems. How could she miss the grandmother she never knew?

It was time to say goodbye to Dave, and Mia always hated this part. She’d grown to love the guests that stayed with her each year, and she worried about the day when some of them didn’t show up again. Life moved so quickly, and sometimes it wasn’t fair at all.

“Have a safe trip,” Mia called as Dave pulled away.

“I’m going to miss him,” Evie said. She’d really taken to the place way more than Mia ever expected. Kate had told her privately about some of Evie’s issues back home, but Mia hadn’t seen any signs of that so far. Maybe the B&B was healing her troubled soul.

“So, I have some ideas I wanted to show you for the wedding,” Kate said, holding a notepad. “Want to go out back and take a look?”

“Sure,” Mia said.

“I’m going to go take a walk,” Evie said.

The two women looked at her. “A walk? Since when do you walk?” Kate asked.

“Since there’s not a lot to do around here?”