She headed downstairs, still clutching her cell phone and desperate for a glass of wine, despite the fact that she wasn’t completely free of the effects of her drinking the night before. And even though she’d finally dipped into Halcyon’s aspirin, her headache had lingered all day long, through packing, cabin inspection, and the trip to the hardware store. The call to Avery had made it worse.

Halcyon had heard her coming and was apparently on her mind-reading kick again, because she stood in the kitchen opening a bottle of moscato. The aspirin was already on the counter next to the bag of peas that housed her good chocolate. Basically, they were all set for round two of the commiserating.

“I thought you hated the fruity stuff,” Marina said.

“I do, but it’s your favorite, and this bottle is all about you.”

Marina slid onto a barstool and took the full wineglass from Halcyon. “Have I told you lately that you’re a great sister?”

“Maybe a time or two, but it’s always nice to hear.” Halcyon sat next to her. “How did it go?”

“Crappy. I mean, as good as it could. Probably better than I expected, but…”

“How much is Avery hiding her real feelings?” Halcyon finished her thought.

“She was fairly vocal about the angry feelings. You would have appreciated her cursing rant. But yeah, I worry that she keeps the other emotions bottled up.”

“It’s that intelligence thing. She’s always been the smartest person in the room. She’ll have to process everything to death before she comes to a final conclusion.”

“Still doesn’t mean she’ll address how she feels about it. I don’t care how logical Avery seems, everyone has their trigger points. I just hope this doesn’t get her off-balance. Not now. The timing couldn’t be worse.”

“So what are you going to do?”

Marina shrugged. “Wait, I guess. See how she is when I call. If things start to sound sketchy, I’ll go down there.”

“If that dumbass screws up her ride, I’m going to make him pay the rest of his life.”

“If this crap screws up her ride, he’s not going to have much time left for you to work with.”

Halcyon put her hand on Marina’s arm and squeezed. “I’m so sorry. I know that had to be one of the worst discussions you’ve ever had. I can’t even imagine.”

“It was definitely hard.”

Halcyon shook her head. “I don’t know how you do it—being a mother, I mean. It’s like you’re carrying someone else’s heart around in your pocket and you’re always working not to trip or let someone bump into you.”

“That’s fairly accurate, although any honest mother would admit to tripping all the time. I know there’s all kinds of books, but the reality is, kids don’t come with instruction manuals. They can’t because they’re all different. So are mothers.”

“And Avery’s high IQ thing just added to the difficulty level.”

Marina nodded. “It certainly made things challenging. Still does.”