Meet Me at Sunset (Evening Island) - Olivia Miles Page 0,7

hair, too.

“She lived a long life,” Ellie said bravely, but the tears prickled the backs of her eyes again, damn it. She glanced away, forced a bright smile, but Simon’s was one of sympathy and understanding, making her feel connected to him all over again, because of course he knew. He’d spent endless summers with Gran just like she had, here on Evening Island. “Makes it feel like the end of an era, sometimes.”

And it was. Now, looking at Simon, and the fine lines around his eyes, and the way his chest had filled out from the boyish frame she knew so well, she was all too aware that time had passed. That the summers they once spent together were only a memory.

But a shared one.

“So what keeps you busy here year-round?” he asked, as one would, except that Ellie couldn’t help but think he should know this; if he’d asked, surely his mother might have told him?

“I have an art studio here in town,” she said proudly. “It’s down by the docks. Turquoise paint. Hard to miss.”

“We’ll plan on stopping in sometime,” Simon said with a grin.

Ellie narrowed her eyes for a moment. We? But then she thought, no doubt his parents had decided to get an early start on the summer. Wanted to air out the house. Maybe they hadn’t taken advantage of any renters for the upcoming lilac season the way other locals liked to do, choosing instead to return mid-June, when the festivities were over. The Webbers hadn’t been back for a couple of years; maybe they wanted to make up for time lost.

“You here for long?” she asked, shifting the weight on her feet. She hoped the eagerness didn’t register in her face. After all, he had a career. He had gone to Colgate, then onto law school. (Gran liked to gossip, it kept her busy, and when it came to Simon, Ellie had been all too happy to listen.)

“For the summer,” Simon replied, and Ellie felt the smile widen on her face.

The whole summer! And it was only May!

He glanced back over his shoulder into the crowd and then looked at her in apology. “I have to go, but…this was nice, Ellie. Really nice. I’m glad you’re here.”

She could only nod in response as she watched him turn and walk away, his shoulders broad, his nut-brown hair curling at the nape of his neck like it did when they were just teenagers. And somehow, Evening Island didn’t feel so lonely after all. In fact, it felt just as wonderful as it had all those years ago, when it was the one place she could be where anything felt possible.

Chapter Three

Hope

Hope stared at the dish towel that was hanging from her husband’s bathroom hook and forced a calming breath. She would bet anyone five bucks that a bath towel (a thick, soft, embroidered bath towel) was currently hanging from the handle to the dishwasher at this very moment.

She reached out a hand and snatched the thin, flimsy, white dish towel from the hook and tossed it into the laundry basket, which was already spilling over with sheets, endless white undershirts that Evan seemed to change three times a day, and of course, the girls’ tiny clothes, most of them in various shades of pink.

Once, there had been a time when she could stare at those little clothes for hours. When she marveled in folding each floral-printed blouse, and ironed each and every pink cotton dress. She always dressed the girls in coordinating clothes but never matching. They were fraternal twins, but they looked enough alike to be mistaken for identical, with their honey-colored loose curls and big green eyes. She wanted them to each be unique. She wanted to foster their individuality. She wanted to give them all the opportunities her mother had never instilled in her.

And yet, despite her best efforts, she feared that she was slowly becoming her mother.

It had started with the house. A giant suburban thing that was far too much trouble to clean, and even when they’d hired a housekeeper to come once a week, still required some elbow grease for the sake of her own dignity. Then there were the neighbors who seemed to never run out of one-upping each other at the playground at the end of the block. Hope wouldn’t have minded so much if she’d found one true friend in the mix, or if Evan was around more often, or if the girls weren’t currently attempting