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“You think I’d go out with soet Dad’s approval?”

“So for it”

Winona forced a laugh, but it didn’t fly Soo for her father’s approval? “This whole conversation is pointless because I’o out with me He never did”

Aurora gave her a sad, familiar look “You knohat amazes me about you, Win?”

“My keen intellect?”

“Horong you are when you look in the mirror”

“Says the size six former cheerleader” Winona pushed to her feet “Come over at three tomorrow, okay?”

“I’ll be there”

“And Aurora? Don’t tell anyone about this Especially Vivi Ann That stupid crush was a long tio I wouldn’t want anyone to think it matters now Hell, he’s probably married with three kids”

“Your secrets have always been safe with me, Win”

The next afternoon, Winona stared at herself in the full-length ood fashion tih-waisted slied jeans, and cowboy boots were hardly helpful to her cause

Aurora had done her very best, and Winona appreciated the effort, but so to slim her doas one of them She kicked off her boots and actually felt soainst the wall Instead, she slipped on a pair of orn flats

“He’s going to think I haven’t stopped eating since he left”

All the way to her car, and through town, she re with a man she used to know but didn’t anyle the past up with the present Her crush on hih to last

She drove along the waterfront, past the touristy shops that lined the Canal, and turned left at the end of town Here was the Water’s Edge property line She couldn’t help noticing again how ragged the fences were looking It re with her father Out at the highway, she drove south for a quarter of a h the Grey and Connelly parcels were adjoining, Luke’s land had been vacant for years; the grass, even in winter, was tall and clumpy Alder trees had sprouted up like weeds in the past few years, giving the acreage a spindly, unkempt look The old house, an L-shaped rambler built in the early seventies, was sorely in need of paint and the shrubbery around it had groild Junipers tangled with rhododendrons, which peeked through azaleas