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And she didn’t want to spoil today with those thoughts. It was okay to think about becoming stronger, becoming better, even thinking about how the pain had molded and shaped her, but to think about how Ted would have done everything wrong wasn’t productive at all.

They all had their kites together, and Josiah and Lana had theirs in the air while she and Dan were still working on getting theirs up.

For some reason, hers just would not fly.

She was about to take the tail off when Josiah came over and studied her kite for a bit as she worked, trying to get it more than ten feet in the air.

“I think you have the cross spar on backward,” he finally said.

She laughed. She’d figured she’d done it wrong. She pulled her kite back down, and he pointed out that she had flipped it around and put it on the wrong side.

“That’s why these things are all twisted,” he said, pointing to the places where the cross spar locked in.

“I see. I guess I thought that was a weird way for it to go, but I suppose I was eager to get my kite in the air and didn’t take the time to do it right.”

“That’s okay. That helps you learn,” he said, winking at her and then moving a bit as his own kite took a dip and almost hit the water.

She thought about that. It was representative of her life.

Maybe she’d been in such a rush after high school that she’d taken what looked like the easy route, eager to get her life started, when she should have paid attention and done a little better job.

Again, just like Josiah had said, the detour had made her wiser.

It had taught her things that she wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

And she had two amazing children because of it as well.

They flew kites for more than an hour, their faces bright, their smiles easy and free.

Dan managed to get his kite tangled up with Lana’s, which made Lana mad, but it was just one more learning experience, in Claire’s eyes anyway.

They stopped for lunch, spreading a blanket out and using her grandma’s picnic basket, with all the goodies that she’d packed, including freshly baked bread.

It wasn’t warm, but the butter was soft, and she had gotten some of her grandma’s raspberry jelly out of the pantry, and that made up for any lack of warmth.

It was funny how being outside worked up an appetite, and all the food they’d packed was consumed. Claire could have eaten a little more too. But it was probably good for her to not eat too much. She still was going to go meet with Grace later.

“We should do this every day,” Dan said, happily shoving the last chocolate chip cookie into his mouth. It was store-bought, but maybe next time they did this, Claire would have the time to make homemade chocolate chip cookies. Hers were just as good as her grandma’s, if she did say so herself.

Since her grandma seemed to be the gold standard for everything.

“I had a great day. And I’m totally down for doing it again,” Josiah said.

And Claire gave him a smile that she supposed said way too much about how she was feeling.

His eyes widened a bit, like he was surprised by the feeling on her face, but she didn’t look away.

After all, this was her new beginning. She wasn’t going to hide from it.

“If you hadn’t tangled my kite up, I would have had a better time,” Lana said.

“But it was pretty fun.” She smiled, and that made Claire’s heart light and happy.

Who knew what would be going on next year.

Maybe Lana would decide she wanted to live with her dad.

Maybe she would want to spend time with her friends rather than her family.

Maybe something totally unexpected would have happened by then.

Whatever—Claire would cherish this time.

They put all their garbage back in the picnic basket to be disposed of when they got home, folded the blanket up, and flew kites for another hour or so, until they decided it was time to go home.

“I can get some wood ready and be ready to have a fire when you’re back from meeting with Grace, if you think you’d like that?” Josiah asked as they pulled into the driveway, and the kids piled out.

“That would be an amazing ending to a perfect day.”

“I hope your talk goes well,” Josiah said, his hands on the steering wheel. He didn’t move to get out.

“I wanted to do that before we took our boat ride tomorrow.” Josiah had rented a boat, and they were going to go out in it for a bit. She’d kept a careful eye on the weather, and it seemed like it would be a perfect summer day. Perfect for a boat ride. Perfect for a family to spend time together.

“I think that’s a good idea. Put those things in the past where they belong.”

“Yeah. Make sure I’m remembering it right. I sometimes think that maybe I changed what I think happened because I don’t want to take responsibility for anything that I did.”

“I’m sure Grace will set you straight.”

“I hope so.”

“She will,” Josiah said, and a hand lifted from the wheel and moved over to cover hers, which sat on the seat between them.

“I had a good time. Thank you.” He looked into her eyes, his hand covering hers, her heartbeat loud and fast in her chest as her breath seemed to catch in her throat, and her mouth went dry .

“It wouldn’t have been the same without you. Thank you.” She wanted to say more, wanted to say a lot more, but beyond Josiah’s head, she could see that Dan had run up to the window and was waiting for him to get out.

“Looks like Dan wants to talk to you.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” she said, jumping out of the truck and breaking the spell.

She needed to get in her car and leave. They’d barely left any time for her to drive to Strawberry Sands in order to meet Grace.

In hindsight, maybe she shouldn’t have insisted on meeting her, but she wanted to get this behind her like she told Josiah.

They were going out on the lake tomorrow, and she didn’t want any clouds—any dark clouds—hanging over their day.