Meet Me at Sunset (Evening Island) - Olivia Miles Page 0,63

that extended all the way to the lake. A pool interrupted its path, and Hope could picture some colorful floats bobbing in the water. Some striped umbrellas over the iron tables that were perched at the end.

There wasn’t beach access like they had at Sunset Cottage, but the view stretched as far as the eye could see. It would be stiff competition if this house went on the market, too.

As if reading her thoughts, Darcy said, “It will kill me to leave this island.”

“Then why go?” Hope asked. “You’ve been a long-standing member of the community.”

Darcy just clucked her tongue. “My husband has been gone for ten years now. My kids have their own lives. All that’s left for me here are memories. I’ll go to Chicago to be close to my daughter.”

Darcy shook her head, her expression pensive as she looked around the room. “It all goes by so fast.”

Hope’s mouth was dry as she finished the tour and promised to call in a few days with some initial ideas. She waited until she was at the end of the long, neatly manicured boulevard before quickening her pace, moving as fast as her heels would allow on the dirt roads.

She couldn’t get to Ellie’s studio fast enough. She had to see her children. She had a horrible, sickening feeling that something had happened to them in her absence. That she had done them wrong by leaving them, even for only a couple of hours.

She felt wild as she hurried across the docks, her heel nearly catching in one of the wood holes and toppling her forward. She swung open the door, her heart feeling like it was beating out of her chest, as her eyes scanned the room for the girls. It was quiet. Too quiet.

“Hello?” she called.

From somewhere in the distance, she heard a muffled sound. Her sister’s voice. “Out here! We’re on the dock!”

She hadn’t even realized there was another door to the studio until she saw it, half-hidden by a large, unfinished painting. She went outside, the relief that she was about to be reunited with her girls already making her shoulders relax, until she saw them.

They were standing on the dock. A bucket was at their feet. Rose was holding up a giant fish—in her bare hands—and Victoria was splashing about with two more in the bucket.

Ellie looked on gaily, while chatting with old Edward, who grinned broadly and said, “Teaching these girls how to fish! Good to see you, Hope! My, all grown!”

Hope took in the sight. She couldn’t even prioritize her manners and make small talk with Edward, who had once been a handyman for the Taylors.

“I thought they were learning how to paint,” she said faintly.

“Oh that.” Ellie tossed a hand in the air. “Too much mess.”

Hope’s eyes popped. And this wasn’t?

She stepped forward, reached for her girls and then thought the better of it. They smelled. They actually smelled like…fish. And Rose, she now saw, had things that she could only hope were not fish guts in her hair.

Hope felt the backs of her eyes prickle again, but this time it was not from feelings of regret or guilt. This time it was from exhaustion. Pure exhaustion at the thought of what it would now take to handle this situation.

She had the urge to turn around. To flee. To let Ellie help clean up the mess that she had made.

She wanted to go back to Darcy’s peaceful home. She wanted to sit in silence and sip iced tea and talk about tile samples and paint swatches.

She did not want to touch her fish-slime-covered children.

Or deal with the fallout of taking them away from their fun.

“Looks like we’ll be walking home.” She hated the thought of ruining the stroller, even if it would take forever to walk home. Ellie had left it parked in front of the store, clearly having no need for it.

“What? A little fish smell never hurt anyone!” Edward began to laugh, a laugh that verged on a cackle, and Hope began to have the impression that she was the brunt of some joke.

Her jaw set as she stared at her sister, who was all too happily laughing along with Edward. Still, when Ellie caught her expression, something in her eyes flashed.

“They had fun, Hope,” Ellie urged.

“Are you implying that they don’t have fun with me?” Hope demanded.

Ellie opened her mouth to say something and then seemed to think better of it. Hope didn’t wait around to continue the