“Excellent!” Anneliselovedto know things, and once she knew it, boy, was it in the memory banks. “Guess Mr. Gordimer wasn’t her destiny.”
“Destiny” was a new and beloved concept, too. Where she’d picked it up, Eden wasn’t entirely certain, but Annelise was captivated by the drama and romance of it.
“Guess not, sweet cheeks.”
Eden flipped the left turn on the road that led up to Devil’s Leap.
The Lumineers were singing “Ophelia” on the radio. Usually Annelise liked to sing along to that one. The fact that she wasn’t meant she was still mulling something.
“Is that what happened tomydad? Did he hightail it?”
Eden’s heart twinged. Oh, crap.
Annelise was trying to sound casual, but a little worry had crept through.
“Um... well, not precisely. He didn’t leave because he was scared. Not at all. He just left town quickly because he had a... previous appointment.”
“Oh.”
“Appointments” were boring things or things to be dreaded, in Annelise’s book, involving dentists and doctors, and it was pretty much guaranteed to be a topic ender.
But Annelise wasn’t six anymore. Eden couldn’t keep diverting her with hairpin topic changes or holding out shiny objects.
Eden sighed—surreptitiously, a slow release of breath—because Annelise was keyed into sighs, too.
But for now, Eden suddenly knew exactly how to end the topic.
“Auntie Avalon said their donkey might arrive today,” she said. “We can go and see it.”
“Adonkey? No.Way.”
“Way.”
When Eden and Annelise pulled up to the gigantic rose-colored Victorian house at Devil’s Leap where Avalon now lived with Mac, she’d had a text from Avalon.
We’re out near the goat paddock! I told Mac we should name the donkey after him. You should have seen his expression.
This was followed by an emoji of a little yellow face laughing tears.
Eden snickered.
Avalon and Mac definitely gave each other a run for the money.
P.S. You guys might as well stay for dinner. It’s just spaghetti. But you have to eat.
This was true.
And now that they were here, Eden realized how pleasant it would be to just linger a tiny bit outside the confines of her usual schedule.
When Avalon bought the house at Devil’s Leap, she’d discovered Mac was the caretaker, and he lived nearby in a cottage with a small herd of goats, some chickens, and a homely but dignified long-legged cat. Avalon had adopted a tiny, ancient fluffy dog, and they were adopting more animals and making plans to set up programs for at-risk kids and veterans—and presentations to local investors and vendors were the reason Avalon had trifold poster board. After the biggest upheaval in her entire life, Avalon was living her dream.
And Devil’s Leap was heaven for a kid. Vast, rugged, wooded, beautiful, a little remote. Annelise had lucked out in the aunt department. Mac wasn’t an official uncle yet, but really, it was pretty much only a matter of time.
Eden had never stopped to wonder whether she was livingherdream. She’d been just too busy living, period. She’d never dreamed, for instance, that Annelise would be a part of her life. But she was practically Eden’s very definition of happiness.
“They’re out by Uncle Mac’s goats, Leesy. Let’s go find her.”
They skipped up the flagstone path to the side road leading up to the Devil’s Leap swimming hole. The metal-barred gate separating the walkway from the road was swung open wide. From a distance they could hear the steady, primal rhythm of someone chopping wood. She was glad for the sound of an ax. The scream of chain saws might have felt like a desecration up here.