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“It’s okay if I get her out?” Amara asked Olive, kneeling down beside Livvy.

“I would appreciate it. I’ve fed her in worse places, and I’ve often fed her without getting her out of her car seat, but she needs to be snuggled.”

Especially since she hadn’t gotten that after she had first been born.

As her sister unstrapped the baby and carefully got her out, she casually said, “I think there are some other things we need to talk about. You might not have gotten all the correspondence that our parents’ lawyers have been sending about their estate.”

“I haven’t gotten a single one,” Olive said, not really thinking a whole lot about it. Just hoping that she didn’t have a lot of bills to pay, because she certainly couldn’t afford it. Weren’t lawyers expensive?

“I think she needs a diaper change,” Amara said as she lifted Livvy carefully and cradled her in one arm.

“I have a little pad you can set her on, if you don’t mind?”

“I don’t mind at all, but I can count on one hand the number of diapers I’ve changed in my life. So, while I know it doesn’t go on her head, I’m not sure I’m going to get it right.”

“You have to start somewhere. And Livvy is as easygoing as a baby can get. She’s put up with quite a few novice diaper changes from me. I’m still not great at it.”

“I suppose practice makes perfect. And she doesn’t look very old.”

“She’s not. Just two months.”

“Wow. I can’t believe I didn’t know you were pregnant.”

“I love bulky sweatshirts.”

“You always have. So I didn’t think anything about it when I saw you in them.”

“It was great camouflage. Although, I was definitely tempted to tell you guys. I just...didn’t.”

She hadn’t completely broken up with Ricardo at the time. And she had needed to go back to Ecuador. She didn’t want her sisters trying to talk her out of it, even though at that point, she knew that it wasn’t a good idea.

She wished she had talked to them and allowed them to talk her out of it. But the lessons that she learned after she’d gotten so deathly ill, after Ricardo had left her without a backward glance, after she’d suffered through the most difficult time of her life, those lessons were priceless. And they brought her back to the Lord. It was funny how when everything was going well, she hadn’t given God much thought, but as soon as her life was in danger, and her daughter was potentially going to lose her mother, and she had no one else to turn to, she clung to God, and to her surprise, He answered her prayers.

He didn’t seem to hold a grudge because she had basically ignored Him all her life. God was forgiving, and He proved that to her, which had made her want to do more for Him, because He had done so much for her.

It had been the hardest time of her life, but it had completely changed her life, so while she wished she had said something to her sisters, she also was glad she hadn’t.

“Is this too tight?” her sister asked as she put the tabs around the baby’s belly.

Livvy had started crying, although from experience, Olive knew that her cries could get a lot louder than what they were.

“I don’t think so. If it’s too loose, it’ll fall off, but I haven’t gotten it too tight yet.”

It was one mistake she hadn’t made. Or maybe it was one mistake she just didn’t realize she had made. It was probably like a too-tight pair of jeans, it would be uncomfortable, but at least it wouldn’t fall off and allow leakage to go everywhere.

“So,” Amara said, studiously studying the diaper that she had just put on the baby. “Are you going to answer any of my questions?”

“I know I owe answers to you, but I owe them to Mertie too. Can we maybe wait until the three of us are together, so I can tell the story just once?”

Olive knew that her sisters deserved to know what was going on in her life. They were her sisters after all. And she hadn’t been forthcoming with them. In fact, as terrible as she felt about it, she’d told lies to keep them from worrying. She was going to have to admit that too. And she definitely didn’t want to.

“That makes sense. Mertie already knows my story, but you don’t. Maybe I should tell you.”

“I’d like to hear,” she said as she picked up the supplies, smiling as Amara picked up the baby. She held her like she didn’t quite know what to do with her, but it was obvious that she was also enchanted.

“She’s so perfect.”

“My opinion might be biased, but I agree with that assessment.”

Her sister laughed. They had so many good memories together. But as they had grown older, especially after they moved away from Raspberry Ridge, there had been less and less family time and more time where she pursued her own interests. Of course she had been a teenager, but she thought of herself as selfish. Maybe she could also blame her parents. They seemed less and less interested in the fact that they had a family. And less and less interested in keeping the family together.

When Amara didn’t start right away, she prompted her, “If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.”

“I was just trying to figure out where to start. There’s so much baggage with our parents.”

“I was just thinking it was pretty amazing that they stayed together, like, they would have been the prime candidates for divorce. I never really thought they liked each other that much.”

“You know, I hadn’t thought about that, but I think you’re right. They never did seem to care for each other. And they definitely didn’t try to spend time with each other.”

“Isn’t that what normal people want?” Honestly, she wasn’t even sure what normal was.

“Well, maybe that’s part of my story. Since, I’m engaged to be married, and I want to spend every waking second with my fiancé.”

“Someone I know?”

“And that’s where my story starts,” Amara said, holding her hand out for the bottle, and after a pause, Olive held it out.

“You want to go over there to the bench?” she asked, nodding at the bench that sat just outside of the cemetery, facing the lake.

“Yes. I think I would do better if I were sitting down,” Amara said with a smile. “My job in Chicago didn’t exactly prepare me for feeding babies.”

“No. You were doing really well in that job. How soon do you have to go back? Is that where your fiancé is from? Chicago?”

“Goodness. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. When I got here, I met Hobert Gilchrest, maybe you—”

“The kid from our childhood that we weren’t allowed to talk to?” Olive said in disbelief. She remembered well her mother’s warnings to stay far, far away from him, that he was bad and no good. They weren’t even allowed to talk to him on the school bus, let alone to play with him.

“The very one. I know Mom always told us not to talk to him, and I found out why.”

“Why? Did he kill someone?”

“He was a kid. In elementary school. Of course he wasn’t a murderer.”

“True. But now? Is he in jail?”

“No. I’m engaged to him.”

“Shut up.” Olive said in disbelief. There was no way her sister could be getting married to the notorious Hobert Gilchrest. There had to be a catch. She had to be joking.

“Yes. When I first met him, I didn’t know who he was and he didn’t know who I was. I think we both suspected each other’s identities, but I got to the point where I really didn’t want to know. Because I found out he was actually a really great guy. Humble, kind, and hardworking, and he had his head on straight. You know? Where I had a tendency to get caught up in my work and get lost in it, and maybe even neglect the things that I shouldn’t, like you.”

She looked over. “I didn’t even know my own sister was pregnant. You think I might have been working too much?” She laughed, but it lacked a lot of humor. “Anyway, when I found out his name, I had to try to dig around and figure out why Mom always told us he was no good. It turns out Mertie found her journals, and we found out that it had to do with the fact that the husband of one of Mom’s friends had an affair with Hobert’s mother. So basically, Mom was angry, her friend was hurt and lost her marriage, and it was a mess. But Hobert was an innocent bystander who happened to be the one that Mom took her anger out on.”

“A child? She would honestly punish a child because of what his parents did?”

“It looks that way. According to her journal. I assume she wasn’t lying in them.”

“No. That’s probably the one place where you tell the truth.”

She hadn’t realized her mom had journals, although now that she thought about it, she supposed she’d seen her mom writing at various times in little notebooks. She supposed she just thought that she was figuring out a new sales plan or something.

“So, Hobert and I are getting married, and we’re going to build a house down by where his house is now. Something a little bit bigger than what he has, but nothing ostentatious or massive. I... I learned a lot from Hobert and his idea of living simply, not getting a bunch of stuff you don’t need, and not working so hard that you never really get to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and it all kind of rubbed off on me and... I quit my job in Chicago.”

“What?” Olive said, pausing as they reached the bench.

Livvy had really started to cry, and maybe she had misheard her sister.

“I quit my job.” Her words were simple, then she looked back down at the baby and sat carefully, bringing the bottle up and touching her lips with it before Livvy figured out what was going on and latched onto the nipple immediately.

“I can’t believe it.” Which was absolutely true. Her sister had been so determined to climb the ladder and reach the top, becoming the first whatever it was that she was, which Olive wasn’t even sure. Just knew it was a bigwig thing in Chicago, and Amara was living the Chicago life and seemed to enjoy it.

“So you had a radical transformation.” It wasn’t a question, but she still tilted her head and watched Amara’s reaction.

“I did. I guess I always knew that wasn’t the right way to live. That I loved my small town, and I was much happier here, but I got sucked into wanting more and being better and all that, and I guess that just became what I thought I wanted. But it’s not anymore.”

“And you said that you and Hobert are engaged?”

“Yes. We don’t want a big fancy wedding. We just want something small, as soon as Garnet...Pastor Garnet I guess he is now, can marry us.”

“So that was Garnet. Mertie’s best friend from childhood?”

“Yes. There’s...something going on with them. I know they’re getting married, but it was so shocking. Mertie told me that she owed me an explanation, so maybe it’s good that we’ll plan to get together, and everybody can tell everyone else their stories. Except everyone knows mine now.”

“Yours is pretty amazing, and you have a happily ever after.”

“I don’t know if I would go that far. There’s going to be a lot of life to live between now and the time it’s over. Hopefully anyway. Who knows what God has for us.”

“Yeah. Sometimes God has really wonderful things for us and we just turn our heads and walk away.”

“You sound like you’re talking from experience.”

“I might be.”

Her sister looked interested, but she didn’t say anything more. If she was going to wait to tell her story, there was no point in getting it started now. Instead, she smiled at the way Amara cradled Livvy, looking down on her like she was fascinating.

Until she had become a mom, she didn’t realize how much a parent might enjoy having someone make a fuss over their child. It warmed her heart every time someone said something kind about Livvy, like it was somehow like a compliment for her, only better. Not that she felt she could take any credit at all for what Livvy was—a good baby who hardly ever fussed except when she was hungry or needed to be changed. Olive certainly didn’t have that kind of personality. At least she didn’t used to. She was working on shifting her entire being, and having God in her life had helped that process considerably. She couldn’t do it by herself.

“Where are you staying?” Amara asked, her head popping up like she had just thought about it.

“I’m not sure. I came to the church, not because I knew there was something going on, but because I wanted a place to pray. I knew that this visit was going to be difficult in a lot of different ways, and I just wanted God’s blessing on it. I didn’t realize I was going to be walking into...”

She wasn’t sure what she had walked into.

“The congregation had just voted to have Garnet as their pastor. He was thanking them for voting for him, and then he was fielding questions.”

“Wow. So when does he start?”

“I’m not sure.”

That seemed to stir up more questions in Olive than it answered, but hopefully all of their concerns and questions would be answered this afternoon when the sisters got together.

In the meantime, Olive had to admit, as her eyes scanned over the wide blue expanse of the lake, it felt good to be home.