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Chapter One

White Bear Lake, Minnesota, 1925

If only this was so she enjoyed

The outdoor dance floor covering the ground between the resort building and the water fountain overfloith ood ti red, white and blue tablecloths that gave everything a patriotic feel, and the colorfully decorated Chinese lanterns hanging on the wires stretched from the tall corner posts added to the overall festive appearance

Even the hill, as it gently sloped toward the lake on the other side of the fountain, was a flurry of activity, with people lined up outside the little red-and-white tents set up for the attire

Her sisters had been right As usual People had coed dresses and suit coats to beachwear Age made no difference today Betty Sandstrom, who’d turned ninety-one last month, sat in a chair with her cane hooked on one arm and on the other side of the table, Hannah Willis bounced her six-week-old baby boy, Henry He was a cutie, with his tuft of blond hair and big blue eyes

Froale held her custo she could e from her bedroom , but that wasn’t an option She was expected to be in attendance today Front and center, along with the rest of her family

Resort ees by the trayload Soda pop with striped straws and cocktails created to disguise the liquor filling the bottolasses There was food, too Lots of it The scent of fire-roastedin the air Soon there would be dessert Cake and ice cream

The sigh that built in her lungs becae to hold in Too powerful Josie let it out, feeling no relief when she did so Everything was running smoothly Extremely smoothly, but there was little pride inside her Even less excitement

There should be A lot of work had gone into the party The planning had started weeks ago That wasn’t unusual Nightingale’s Resort was known for its parties What was different about this one was that it wasn’t just a Fourth of July celebration—it was her sister’s wedding

Twyla and Forrest Reynolds had been ht now, looking at each other with stars in their eyes They’d been ether Josie had always known that Had seen it with her own eyes years ago when they’d all been kids She had a knack for that, seeing what others didn’t always see, especially in themselves Still, Josie’s shoulders wanted to slump clear to her knees

It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for her sister She was, and not just for Twyla, but also for their oldest sister, Norma Rose, ould er, who’d o last er and Brock had shown up, having driven fro with Norma Rose and Ty, were on the dance floor next to Twyla and Forrest, all of the happier than ever

Josie tried to not feel it, but it was there That deep, so the odd one out The story of her life For years, she’d told herself that was her choice It still was She truly didn’t give a hoot about all the fuss and finery surrounding the resort, surrounding her family

She did love them Her family And she was thankful for them That’s why she did all of this—planned parties she’d rather not attend, made beds and swept floors, even waited on tables and wrote out admittance tickets The resort was the family business

Today it was all just a bit unsettling

Soed inside her In the past, she’d been better at putting on a smile—for shohen needed Maybe it was just that currently, her life was in such disarray that keeping up the pretense that the world was as wonderful as her sisters clairew more impossible by the minute She wanted to believe the world was a wonderful, happy place She always had But she knew otherwise That notion weighed more heavily on her mind today than usual

Another sigh built and burned inside her chest as an arm fell around her shoulders

“Well, Josie-girl, it looks like it’ll be just you and me”

The souring sensation in her sto up, for there was little else she could do, Josie planted a grin as big as her father’s billfold on her face and leaned against his shoulder as he hugged her close to his side with one heavy arm However, she made no comment in response to his statement