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Harper pulled out a photo that was bent and faded with age It had been glued onto a piece of pink construction paper cut into the shape of a lopsided heart In sloppy cursive across the top, it said My Fa

The photo showed the four of them, Brian, Nathalie, Harper, and Ge bathing suits--purple, hite flowers and a ruffle around the bottootten about that day, but it was eleven years ago

They all looked so happy--even Gemma, who hadn’t wanted to come out of the water for the picture Nathalie had had to bribe her with an ice-cream cone

"Harper?" Alex said uncertainly frohts

"Yeah" Harper put the picture back in the box, then set the box aside

"Sorry, I just let myself in," Alex said as he came down the steps "I knocked, but you didn’t answer"

"No, it’s okay" Harper stood up and brushed the dust fro, they’d collected a lot of dirt and cobwebs "I "

When Alex calanced around the base fro over his shoulder, and he readjusted the strap before turning his attention back to Harper

"What are you doing here?" he asked her

"Just cleaning up" She absently wiped at her eyes, which had welled up a bit while she was looking through the box "I’ve beentime"

"I see," Alex said, but he didn’t sound like he really did "Anyway, I ca on all ?" Harper asked

When they’d spoken yesterday, neither of them had been able to come up with a concrete plan for what to do about Ge a few phone calls Alex had offered to help, but they both agreed it would sound better if the calls came from a family member instead of Gem hanging on his hip "If you wanna take a look"

"Yeah, sure, of course"

Alex glanced around for a place to sit Looking past the old lawn chairs, which still looked rather cobwebby even after Harper had wiped them off, he sat down on the base it across his knees

"I know you were , too," Alex said as Harper walked over to hi over at his computer screen as he clicked away "So I went to the Internet"