Taz leaped off the deck and tore after a squirrel who’d dared to enter his yard, his sharp little bark deceptively ferocious. He stood at the foot of the maple tree, barking so hard all four feet lifted off the ground. She smiled. “C’mere, Taz,” she called. “Come.”

Taz turned and trotted back to her, leaped lightly onto her lap and put his little front feet on her chest to try to kiss her. She turned her head and let him lick her chin, then picked him up and hugged his solid, furry little body. She closed her eyes then set Taz on the deck.

She picked up her glass of iced tea and sipped it. The grass needed cutting. One more thing that needed to be done. Sometimes she paid Dillon down the street to cut it for her. Maybe she should go see if he was home. Summer vacation and its long empty days had kids his age, too young for a job but old enough to want to make a little money, looking for things like that to do.

Maybe in a while. She still felt tired, so tired, after that crazy weekend. Much of it was emotional exhaustion, she knew. She hadn’t taken Avery’s advice yet, hadn’t let herself think about Tyler because…she was afraid.

Shaking her head, she rose to her feet. Never mind finding Dillon, she’d cut the grass herself. She needed to keep busy, her two weeks of vacation stretching out empty in front of her giving her a hollow aching feeling inside. Actually her whole life stretched out empty in front of her. And the hollow ache intensified. But as she stepped off the deck, Margot Wirth appeared at her gate.

“Hi, Kaelin.”

Kaelin’s feet halted in surprise. “Hi, Mrs. Wirth. How are you? Is there something you need?” She thought about wedding decorations and flowers and gifts…was there something she’d forgotten to do?

“No. Just to talk to you for a few minutes. If that’s okay.”

Kaelin studied Mrs. Wirth’s face, the tension in her mouth and at the corners of her eyes, the shadows beneath her eyes. “Of course.” This had to be about yesterday. Geez. Mrs. Wirth was probably angry at her for her part in that big scene. Great. “Can I get you something to drink? Lemonade? Coffee?”

“No thanks. I’m fine.”

“Let’s sit.” Kaelin indicated the wicker chairs on her deck.

Mrs. Wirth took a seat, setting her designer handbag on the deck. She clasped her fingers together in her lap. “How are you, dear? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Kaelin hesitated. “How are you?” She regarded her friend’s mother with a touch of worry. Yesterday probably hadn’t been a real fun day at the Wirth home.

“I’m okay.” She gave a small smile. “I’m sorry that you got dragged into our family mess yesterday.”

Kaelin blinked. “Well. I sort of contributed to it.”

Mrs. Wirth’s smile went crooked. “You were very brave yesterday.”

Now Kaelin’s mouth fell open. “Um. Brave?”

“What you did was very…noble. For Tyler.”

“I just thought everyone should know the truth.”

“Yes. The truth is important.” She hesitated. “I want to tell you something. About me.”

“Okay.” Kaelin eyed her.

“When I was twenty, I got pregnant. With Avery. It was an accident. I was in college. Ken was much older and he insisted we get married. He wanted me to drop out of college and stay home with the baby. I was young, and in some ways, it was nice to have someone look after me, and Avery. Ken was a doctor and he made good money and I thought it would be a good life, married to him.”

Kaelin processed all this, a little mystified, not sure what to say.

“And it has been a good life. I love my husband and I love my children. Once Avery was born, I just wanted to be the best mother I could be. But it wasn’t what I pictured my life to be, when I was a twenty-year-old college student. And despite everything I’ve had, I’ve often felt a little…empty. As if I wanted more, which I told myself was just selfish and greedy. Considering how much I had.” Again she paused, then met Kaelin’s eyes. “I see some of that in you.”

Kaelin sat back in her chair, dropping her gaze to her knees. “Oh. Well.”

“You don’t have to tell me about it,” Mrs. Wirth said quickly. “I know you’ve had to give up things in your life. I also know you’re happy here, in some ways. But, Kaelin, dear, if there are things in life that you want, you should go after them. Now. Before you’re fifty years old and wondering what you’ve done with your life.”

Like her? Kaelin’s head spun, her image of Mrs. Wirth being turned inside out. She’d always been so perfect, the perfect wife, the perfect mother, with the perfect home. The idea that Mrs. Wirth felt this way boggled the mind.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said, in a near-whisper.

“Yes you are.” Mrs. Wirth gazed at her shrewdly.

Kaelin wanted to squirm in her chair. Mrs. Wirth knew a lot about her, after the last couple of days. Things she never would have dreamed of telling her. And yet, still she looked at her with affection and understanding. Kaelin’s throat tightened.

“I can’t…I’m afraid,” she choked out.

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid because I want things I can’t have. And I’m afraid I want things I can have. And that scares me even more.”

“I don’t think you need to be as afraid as you are,” Mrs. Wirth said. “Are you worried about your job?”

“Yes.” She bit her lip. “If this gets out…”

“People love you, Kaelin. You might be surprised.” She rose to her feet. “I have to go.” She opened her arms for a hug and Kaelin too rose from her chair and went into her arms. “Think about what I said, okay?” She drew back and smiled at Kaelin.

“Yes. I will.”

Mrs. Wirth picked up her purse and left, and for some reason Kaelin felt like Mrs. Wirth was saying goodbye for a long time. Weird.

In a daze, she headed toward the garage where she kept her lawnmower. Cutting the grass didn’t stop her brain from working, though, as she pushed the mower back and forth over the small lawn first out front then in back. She kept hearing Mrs. Wirth’s words about going after what she wanted, and Nick’s words about whether she’d find that “something wilder” she wanted in Mapleglen and Avery’s words about Tyler caring about her. Avery had told her to think about why he’d been so angry at her. Yesterday. Saturday night. Ten years ago.

Could Avery be right? Could it be because he cared? But if he cared about her, why? Why would he push her away like that? Did Mrs. Wirth think the same thing?

She remembered pieces of their conversation that night in the hotel room, about how he never could live up to his parents’ expectations so he’d given up trying. About how it was easier to just let them think the worst of him. How she’d accused him of mocking her to make up for his own insecurities.

Her feet slowed and stopped in the middle of the yard as she stared at the big maple tree in the corner. Did he really think so little of himself that he thought he didn’t deserve to be loved? Had his parents really done that much of a number on him?

And yet he’d made such a life for himself—put himself through college, begun a successful career in a tough industry in a big city. She’d seen his accomplishments in those secret internet searches—the awards he’d won, the big advertising campaigns he’d been a part of, magazine articles about him even.

He’d been angry the night of the wedding after his parents had asked him to leave, and yeah, maybe some of that had been misplaced and directed at her when she’d come after him along with Nick. But maybe he really had been angry because she was putting her reputation at risk by doing that.

Her reputation. She rolled her eyes then realized she was still standing in the middle of the yard and pushed forward again. What exactly was a reputation anyway? Mrs. Wirth had said that people loved her. People who cared about her knew her and knew if she was a good or a bad person. People had judged her dad after his injury, because he was different, but he wasn’t a bad person because of it.