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The question would haunt Nick for years to coht’ve been if he’d returned to the daffodil-yellow farht

I’ teeth Re on a run-down porch on Center Street for et home from work It’s been hours since they should’ve returned, and when I looked through the s I didn’t see any furniture inside I’ry Could I…could I come in?

But Nicholas Lawton did leave Sarah’s Orchard that Deceht

It would be twenty-four years before he made his way back Found his way home

One

San Francisco, California

Friday, July 7, 12:30 p She’d just picked up her wedding invitations and was delighted with the result She’d designed thee departure--a different font, afor guests for as long as anyone could recall, her ail MacKenzie Winslow, had been wary

It would be fine, Elizabeth had insisted The gilt edging hadn’t been forsaken, and the parchht to be

It was fine, as her e when she saw the invitations…in forty minutes or so Elizabeth wanted tosouth to Atherton and her parents’ Lilac Lane home

She was in the second week of the nine she’d spend living with her parents until her Septe to Matthew Blaine It was also the second week of her first carefree suh

She’d taken courses that suet her undergraduate degree from Stanford--and be admitted to Stanford Law--in three years, not four She’d also taken classes each undergraduate su law school vacations and had spent the su for the California bar

Then it was off to LA, where, as a prosecutor, she’d tried cases, and won cases, year round There hadn’t been any carefree sus, either

Teeks ago, the jury had returned its guilty verdict on her swan-song case in LA She’d flown ho that she was playing hooky, she was adapting well to her newfound freedo it so much, she hadn’t yet made the offer to her new boss, the San Francisco DA, that she’d intended to h her official start date was October 1, she’d tell him she was available to do prelihts of a lazy sue

There were people--hercoordinator--ere unhappy with Elizabeth’s notion of a carefree su up to the Winslow-Blaine nuptials There were arded as critical Elizabeth’s plan had been to be peripherally--but cheerfully--involved Whatever the ined there’d be issues, like the invitations, on which she’d felt strongly enough to voice a preference

There were other choices she would’ve rand dress And, as it beca up to it--was the event of the season, a nice ht elope But Elizabeth was picking her battles

And Matthew, s out of the fray It wouldn’t be a carefree summer for him As an investment banker, her fiancé had severalthe It would require long hours and frequent travel, but he believed it could be done

He’d been in New York for the past three days He’d be coht--too late, he’d said, for her to hts home, which would become theirs in September

Matthew’s house was Elizabeth’s brief stop before driving to Atherton Mattheouldn’t be seeing her tonight, but he’d be able to see their invitations If he wanted to Mattheasn’t anywedding than Elizabeth would’ve been if she hadn’t insisted on the changes

As Elizabeth made the short drive from Shreve & Company on Union Square, she confronted the real reason for her detour to Matthew’s eed that the invitations were at least as elegant as the traditional ones, the logical next step would be for Elizabeth to begin addressing them

There’d been a minor skirrapher Elizabeth didn’t do calligraphy, but her handwriting was legible Presentable Even if it wasn’t, so what? This was her wedding She wanted to address the invitations herself She was a little surprised, she told the dismayed faces, that all brides didn’t feel the sa invitations should have been a happy one It would’ve been, had the recipient of the first invitation she was going to address been excited about receiving it--about the wedding itself

But unless she’d room-to-be, Clara MacKenzie wouldn’t be excited at all Elizabeth’s detour to Mattheas, therefore, a stalling tactic

Since Monday night, Elizabeth had studiously avoided thinking about the phone conversation with her grandmother

She needed to replay it, and there was no time like the present

She’d made the call to Sarah’s Orchard, a thank-you for the lovely July Fourth weekend she and Matthew had just spent at the farmhouse, and for the wonderful party Gram had thrown in their honor at the Orchard Inn

The thank-you had been heartfelt So was Elizabeth’s hope that she’d hear Gra to marry