15 Summers Later

Chapter 28

The last page turns, but the story of our survival is far from over.

—Ghost Lake by Ava Howell Brooks

Luke’s words seemed to wrap around her, warm and sweet and somehow...healing.

She gazed at him, quite sure all the tenderness she had been fighting for him was clear in her eyes.

He looked down at her, then with a sigh, as if surrendering to the inevitable, he leaned down and kissed her.

Oh. She had been dreaming of this for weeks, since the last time he had kissed her. It was even better than she remembered. He tasted of blueberries and sugar and she wanted to taste every inch of his mouth.

She forgot where they were. The crowded park, the busy market. She forgot that both of them were supposed to be helping at the adoption event.

All that mattered was this, right now, being here in his arms, his mouth sliding over hers, tasting and exploring with a tenderness that took her breath away.

She was in love with Luke Gentry.

The truth of it seemed to wash over her as if someone had dumped the two gallons of water on her head.

She loved him. She had probably loved him since that afternoon he had risked his life for hers.

Even after he married someone else, had a child, lost his wife, some part of Madi’s heart had always belonged to Luke. What had begun years ago as friendship—with a healthy dose of hero worship mixed in—had shifted over the years to something else.

What was she supposed to do now? She had absolutely no experience with being in love. All she could think about was tightening her hold around his neck and not letting go.

“Hey, Dad, are you back here? Somebody has a question about the puppy who is deaf in one ear. Can you come talk to them...?”

The voice trailed off into a shocked silence and Madi wrenched her mouth away from Luke’s to find Sierra staring at them, jaw sagging and her eyes huge.

Madi quickly stepped away, almost stumbling because of her stupid leg. He reached to catch her.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Madi said quickly, then regretted the words instantly. It was exactly what it looked like. She and Luke had been wrapped in an embrace, completely oblivious to the rest of the world.

“What is it, then?” Sierra shifted her bewildered gaze from one of them to the other.

“I... Your dad was just... The television reporter upset me and...”

“And you thought you somehow would feel better about a reporter trying to talk to you if you kissed my dad?”

She did feel better, actually. For that entirely too-brief moment, she had forgotten all about Ava’s book and the reporter and the past.

How could she focus on any of that when she had only now faced the stunning truth that she was in love with one of her dearest friends?

“Is something going on with you two?” Sierra pressed, the beginning of something else entering her expression, something that looked like hurt. “Are you two...dating?”

Oh, this was so complicated. Far too tangled to explain to a thirteen-year-old girl in the middle of a crowded farmers market.

“Nothing is going on,” Madi said quickly. She didn’t dare look at Luke. What was he thinking?

“I’m not a child. I thought you, of all people, would never treat me like one, Madi. I asked you outright a few weeks ago if you thought my dad was dating someone and you looked right at me and lied.”

“I didn’t lie. We’re not...dating.”

“Only kissing?”

“That’s enough,” Luke said. “We can talk about this later, Sierra. Let’s all just take a deep breath and return to the adoption event.”

She gazed at her father, then whirled around and practically ran back to the animal rescue tent.

Madi couldn’t look at Luke. She knew all her emotions would be clear in her expression. She often thought Ava completely lacked any sort of a poker face but she suspected hers wasn’t any better. Instead, she reached to pick up the water jugs.

He reached out and pulled them from her. “Madi. We have to talk about this thing between us.”

No. They didn’t. Why couldn’t they go back to the way things had always been between them? Easy and friendly and warm, without this chaotic morass of emotions that threatened to ruin everything?

“This isn’t the time.”

He sighed. “I know. I’m sorry about Sierra. I’ll talk to her.”

She didn’t know how to answer that, so she simply turned and walked away.

After returning to the animal rescue tent, she tried to concentrate on the reason she was there, helping these animals find their perfect forever homes.

As she spoke with people—some serious, others only there to look at the cute puppies and kittens—a low drumbeat of anger throbbed through her. It was focused on only one person.

Ava.

If her sister had bothered to tell her a news crew was in town, Madi might have been prepared for the ambush.

She helped a young couple interested in adopting a kitten with the necessary paperwork, then finally turned to Ed Hyer, unable to quell the simmering frustration.

“Can you handle things here for a while?” she asked. “I need to go talk to my sister.”

“Sure. No problem.”

Without looking at Luke or any of the other volunteers working the event, Madi walked away, striding briskly toward her grandmother’s stall.

She found Ava chatting with a couple she didn’t recognize. One of them, Madi noticed through a burgeoning haze of fury, was holding a copy of Ghost Lake.

When she approached, Ava gave her a look she didn’t immediately register. After a beat, she thought it almost looked like relief. Surely that couldn’t be right, could it?

She didn’t know her sister anymore. Not really. How could she presume to know what might be going through Ava’s head?

“When you’re done signing autographs with your fans,” she said, her voice low and intense, “I need to talk to you.”

“I’m not signing autographs,” Ava protested. “We were only chatting.”

“When you’re finished chatting, then, I would appreciate if you could squeeze out a moment for your sister.”

“Are you Madison?” One of the tourists lit up, eyes bright, and held her book out as if she wanted Madi to sign it.

Madi didn’t realize she was glaring darkly at the woman until Ava stepped in, tugging her arm.

“Excuse me, won’t you?” she murmured to the two women. She grabbed Madi’s arm and dragged her away, probably before Madi could fully lose her temper.

Ava led her to the steps of the courthouse. “Okay. What’s so important?”

“I didn’t say anything was important. Annoying, yes. Important, no. A half hour ago, I was ambushed by a reporter from Nine News who wanted to know my thoughts about your stupid book.”

Now it was Ava’s turn to glare. “It’s not a stupid book,” she snapped. “That refrain of yours is getting really old. Other people don’t seem to think it’s as terrible as you do.”

“You could have warned me. Why didn’t you tell me a reporter was in town?”

“If I had known she was in town, I would have. I didn’t know until she ambushed me, too. I told her I didn’t have time to talk to her right now, and anyway, she should have cleared interview requests with my publicist.”

“Your publicist,”Madi echoed with a scoff. “Well, unfortunately, not all of us have a fancy publicist to vet our interview requests for us, do we? What am I supposed to do when the next reporter comes out of nowhere while I’m in the middle of something important?”

“Tell them to go to hell. You seem to have no problem telling me that in so many words, over and over again.”

“And just look how well that has worked out for me. You’re still here.”

She saw the hurt flare in her sister’s eyes, quick and jagged, before Ava blinked it away.

“Where exactly would you like me to go?” she asked, her voice low. “Back to Portland? I can’t do that right now. More to the point, I won’t. I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer my presence for another few weeks. After that, I’ll be gone, though. You won’t have to worry about me being around and ruining your perfect town.”

Out of nowhere, Madi was hit by a sneaker wave of sorrow washing over her. She didn’t want her sister to leave. How mixed-up was that?

She couldn’t tell Ava. She would sound ridiculous, especially after she had just yelled at her sister for something completely out of her control.

“What am I supposed to do when the next reporter comes along?” she pressed.

Ava sighed. “You are under no obligation to speak with anyone. You can decide whether you want to give any interviews. I will talk to my publicity team. They can arrange interviews for you as well, if you’d like.”

“I don’t want to talk to anyone. I want everything to go back to the way it used to be, before the book came out.”

“I’m afraid I left my time machine back at my Portland apartment.”

“Go ahead. Make a joke. I don’t find any of this particularly funny.” Madi knew she was acting like a petulant child, behavior she hated, but she felt powerless to stop it.

“I don’t, either,” Ava answered quietly. “I’m sorry they bothered you. I’ll see what I can do about keeping them away but I can’t make any promises. I’m sorry.”

If she were really sorry, Madi thought as she stalked back to the animal rescue tent, Ava wouldn’t have written the book in the first place.