Chapter 3
Present Day
Groggily, Wren opened her eyes to find her three sisters peering over her. She was splayed out on something hard, a slab of wood. What had happened to her?
“Wren?” Juliet breathed, touching her wrist. “Wren, are you all right?”
Immediately, everything flooded back to her.
She was back in Bluebell Cove at the Eco-Lodge party.
She cringed, remembering that she had collapsed on the back porch of the Eco-Lodge, in full view of most of Bluebell Cove.
Great. This was not the entrance she’d planned for.
She hadn’t wanted to make an entrance at all.
Wren tried to pull herself up, but Ivy pressed her back down. “You shouldn’t walk.”
Wren groaned and let her head fall back to the porch floorboards. A horrible ache permeated from her forehead to the base of her spine. Had she hit something when she’d fallen?
Now that the crowd understood she was awake, the party resumed.
The band started up again, playing a song from Supertramp that James Harper had liked.
Wren wondered if her sisters had specifically asked the band to play their father’s favorite hits.
It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Oh, she’d made a mistake in coming back here.
“I need to rest,” she murmured to her sisters.
Celia straightened up and called for Landon. “Can you carry her over to Ivy’s place?”
Ivy groaned and narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. Wren wondered if she was already a burden. But because she was exhausted, and because she hadn’t eaten anything, and because her body was betraying her again, she decided to let whatever happened happen.
Celia’s boyfriend, Landon, carried Wren from the porch and into the shadows of the Eco-Lodge. A biologist of some kind, he was also a father of two and very tender and charming. “Welcome back, Wren!” he said as they went. “That was quite an entrance you made!”
Wren closed her eyes and tried to laugh. “Ivy’s going to kill me.”
“Ivy’s thrilled you’re back,” Landon assured. “We all are. Bluebell Cove isn’t the same without all the Harper girls!”
“Not such a girl anymore,” Wren said. “I feel as old as time.”
“Don’t say that around me,” Landon pretended to scold her. “I’m a lot older than you.”
Ivy hurried around the front of them, jangling her key to open the front door of the old Harper place.
“Just put me on the couch for now,” Wren said to Landon.
Landon turned and draped her gently on the sofa, then stepped back and put his hands on his hips. He didn’t seem to know what else to do. Celia and Juliet came in a few seconds later. Celia kissed Landon, thanked him, and said, “Head back to the party. I’ll be there in a little bit.”
Wren waved a meek hand at Landon. “Thank you.”
“It was nothing,” Landon said before he disappeared, leaving the four Harper sisters in the living room of the home where they’d all grown up.
Silence tightened in the room. Wren tried to pull herself upright so she could look her sisters in the eye, but Ivy again insisted, “Stay down.” She disappeared into the kitchen to get a water bottle with a straw so Wren could remain horizontal, while Juliet spread a blanket over her and Celia asked her what else she needed.
“I’m just a bit hungry,” Wren said, which was the understatement of the year.
Juliet left for a bit to fetch food from the party, returning with a plate of hummus, guacamole, tofu tacos, and refried beans.
Wren wasn’t sure how to eat everything while lying on the couch, so she put the plate on the end table and folded her hands over her stomach.
Celia, Juliet, and Ivy watched her anxiously, waiting for answers.
Finally, Ivy barked out, “You haven’t been monitoring your Graves’ disease, have you?”
It wasn’t a question. Wren rolled her eyes into the back of her head.
“This isn’t my Graves’ disease,” she said. “I’m just exhausted from my trip.”
“Where are you coming from?” Juliet asked.
“I was in Athens this morning,” Wren said. “I’ve been all over Greece since May.”
“Why didn’t you call to say you were coming?” Ivy demanded.
Wren sighed. Although she knew the answer, explaining this was difficult. Too much time had passed between phone calls. There was too much to explain.
“You like the drama of it, I guess,” Ivy blurted.
“That’s cruel,” Juliet said to Ivy, frowning. “We’re so thrilled you’re back, Wren! Really.”
“But you need to be taken care of,” Ivy said. “We’ll help you get better, and then you’ll just leave again. Is that how it’s going to go?”
“Ivy,” Celia said darkly. “Give her a break, okay?”
Ivy closed her eyes. Wren imagined her counting to ten in her head.
“I don’t have any plans to leave right away,” Wren offered meekly. “I just need a place to rest for a while. Maybe it was unfair to assume I could rest here.”
Celia and Juliet exchanged glances. Wren guessed that one of them might have taken her in if only they had a spare room in their place. But Ivy had taken the family home for her own family. It meant that she had the most space.
“We need to get back to the party,” Ivy said, squeezing her hands into fists and letting them go. “We’ve worked too hard to miss it.” She turned and headed out of the house, leaving the door open behind her, as though she expected Juliet and Celia to follow.
When it was clear that Ivy wasn’t in hearing distance, Celia murmured, “Is it your Graves’ disease? You can tell us. We won’t rip your head off.”
Juliet nodded. “We want you to be well. That’s all.”
“It isn’t.” Wren shook her head. “I promise, I’m just exhausted. It was a weird summer.”
She knew that she couldn’t tell them the truth. Not the full truth. Not yet.
“Go back to the party,” Wren urged them. “I didn’t know it was going on. I would have planned my flights differently.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Celia said. “You can come to Bluebell Cove any time, any day. No matter what party we’re having. You’re always welcome.”
But eventually, Celia stepped out, leaving Juliet and Wren alone.
Knowing that Juliet wouldn’t yell at her, Wren pulled herself up slightly so that she could eat one of her tofu tacos.
Although she’d rather have chicken or beef, she was so hungry that she thought maybe these were the best tacos she’d ever had.
She knew the Eco-Lodge had to maintain its commitment to environmentalism.
Maybe that was why there was tofu instead of meat.
“Wow,” she murmured, closing her eyes. “This is so good.”
Juliet sat on the edge of the sofa and smiled. “My boyfriend made them.”
Wren remembered the events of a full year ago, when Juliet had first begun to hang out with Theo Maddox again.
Wren recalled the phone calls, during which Juliet had explained that she was helping him with his restaurant.
She remembered, too, the panicked phone call that Juliet had made to Wren in the middle of the night.
Juliet’s daughter, Danica, had been missing.
She’d run away with a friend from the internet.
Wren felt heavy with guilt. Not long after that, she’d been whisked into a chaotic photography project for her editor, Max.
She’d allowed herself to stop thinking about her family.
She’d allowed herself to forget Bluebell Cove.
“Theo,” Wren breathed. “You fell in love with him.”
“I wanted to tell you,” Juliet said. “I think I fell in love with him almost immediately, but we didn’t let it go anywhere till maybe Christmas.
It was all such a whirlwind after that. We already saw each other almost all of the time, and then suddenly, we were talking about moving in together.
Danica adores him, which is great and surprising, since she does not like everyone and is very hard to please. ” She smiled.
“I can’t wait to meet Danica,” Wren said, realizing as she said it that it was ridiculous that she hadn’t ever met Juliet’s daughter before.
If she’d told Angelos that she hadn’t met an important member of her extended family, he would have said, “You owe it to your family to go back and make peace with them. Don’t be a ghost.”
“She’s very curious about you,” Juliet said sadly.
She gazed at the door, then said, “Ivy doesn’t mean anything bad by it, you know.
I think she doesn’t always know how to love people the right way, if there even is a ‘right’ way.
It sometimes comes off badly. It’s gotten a bit better since she got together with Elliott and refurbished the flower shop and got Lily off to college. But it’s still tricky.”
“People are who they are,” Wren agreed quietly.
They held the silence for a moment. Juliet got up, wringing her hands. “Do you need help getting up to your room?” She reached for Wren’s backpack, which someone had brought over. “I’ll carry this up for you and get you situated.”
Wren was in no position to argue. She followed her sister upstairs, carrying the water bottle Ivy had gotten for her.
Within five minutes, she was tucked into her childhood bed, gazing into the soft light that the room held, now that the drapes were closed.
She could just barely hear the rock band next door, playing yet another of her father’s favorite songs.
She was home. But she felt no better than she had this morning in Athens, all alone. She hoped that would change.