She smiles at me. “No, hon. You should go do something fun with Micah. Use that new bike of yours. And it wouldn’t kill you to include Ivy, if you can bear it. Most of her friends are at summer camp, and I’m going to work with your father later, so I can’t entertain her.”

“OK,” I say.

“Good girl.” She pats Rainbow on the behind and starts toward the garden. “I’m going to do a little weeding before work,” she says.

I should go help her, I know it, but I sense she wants to be alone. She has that sad feeling about her that she gets sometimes, and I know it means she needs her space.

She opens the garden gate slowly and latches it behind her, then bends over and starts pulling weeds from the row of tomato plants. Sometimes when I help her, she hums lullabies she used to sing to me when I was little and I sing along, making up words for the parts I can’t remember, as we inch our way down the rows of vegetables, pulling up weeds that will just be back tomorrow. I wish my singing would help her feel better now, but I can tell by the way she didn’t ask for company that today lullabies won’t help.

Chapter Six

Ivy seems shocked when I invite her to come to the beach with me and Micah. She grabs her old bike from the garage and leads the way. Her bike makes clanking noises every so often, and the brakes squeal when she uses them. She must have spent all her free time fixing mine up and ignoring her own. She may be a pain most of the time, but I realize how thoughtful it was of her to make sure my bike felt like new. Even though Ivy is only eight, I think she’s kind of a mechanical genius. She’s fixed the toaster, our ancient DVD player, and even the ice maker in the freezer. She loves to take things apart to see how they work. When something’s broken, it seems all she has to do is stare at it a few minutes, study the mechanics of it, and then boom! She knows exactly why the thing is broken.

At Micah’s, Ivy hops off her bike and runs to the door before I can even get my kickstand down.

“Micah!” she yells as she knocks excitedly.

Mr. Sasaki opens the door.

“Hey, Ivy, what’s up?”

“We’re going to the beach!”

“Yeah, Micah told me. I made you guys some cookies to take. Come on in and we’ll pack ’em up.”