“Why would I?” June asks. “I work every day.”
“I dunno. Because you’re a girl,” Sarah says as she folds a flannel shirt and tucks it into a suitcase. “And sometimes a girl needs a pair of pretty shoes.”
“Ew,” June says with a scowl. “No. No pretty shoes.”
“June doesn’t like girl clothes,” I inform Sarah and turn to June. “You can just stay with me, you know.”
“And be stuck watching you snog Wolfe all the damn time? No, thanks. I’ll take my chances with Annabelle.”
I snort and turn back to the clothes.
“So, nothing’s changed since we were in high school,” Sarah says with a nod. “You went to the prom in slacks and a blue smock thing that you borrowed from your grandmother.”
“So?”
“Okay, let’s focus,” I suggest and toss a pair of jeans into the suitcase. “This one will be jeans and underwear. That one is tops and bras. We’ll put the boots in a tote or bucket since most of them are muddy.”
“It’s been rainy,” June mutters. “Of course, they’re muddy.”
“Hey, I’m not judging.”
We work quickly, and in less than thirty minutes, we’re lugging the heavy luggage out to June’s truck and setting it in the back seat where it won’t get wet.
“We’ll follow you up to your grandma’s and help you unload,” Sarah says. “Don’t argue. We’re going no matter what you say.”
“Fine,” June says, rolling her eyes. “But you really don’t have to.”
“See you soon,” I reply with a happy wave, and June can’t seem to contain the pleased smile as she gets in her truck and starts the engine.
“She’s not as grouchy as she wants everyone to believe she is,” Sarah says. “And, of course, I’m going to give her a hard time about her wardrobe. She still has a sweatshirt that she wore in high school. Before I left, Luna.”
“I know. Fashion just isn’t her jam, you know?”
“I’m not even talking about fashion. I’m talking about regular wardrobe staples. I know she works a lot but come on.”
“I did find some cute summer things in the mix,” I tell her as we pass Lighthouse Way, headed toward Annabelle’s house. “But, yeah, she could use a makeover.”
“She would rather poke her eyes out than let us give her a makeover.”
“Maybe that’s why I want to do it so badly,” I reply with a laugh. “Come on, let’s unload.”
“There’s my girl,” Annabelle says as we all get out of the cars and start to help June inside with the luggage.
“Wow, all of the decorations are already gone,” I say in shock. “How in the world did you manage to do that so quickly?”
“Why, magic, of course,” Annabelle says with a wink. “Now, come in out of this rain. I’ve got some hot chocolate simmering in the kitchen, and I just baked some cowboy cookies.”
“Thanks, Grandma,” June says. “I’ll take these bags up to my room later.”
“We might as well just do it now,” I urge June. “Then you won’t have to later when you’re full of chocolate, and all you want to do is crash.”
“Good idea,” Sarah agrees, and the three of us muscle the bags up two flights of stairs to June’s old bedroom at the top of the turret on the side of the old Victorian house. “I always loved this bedroom.”
It’s round with a queen-sized, four-poster bed and a long dresser with an attached mirror.
“It still looks the same,” I add and set the bucket of boots—that have to weigh at least sixty pounds—at the end of the bed. I cross to the window and look out, smiling when I see the lighthouse in the distance and the ocean beyond, raging in the storm. “It’s the best view in Huckleberry Bay.”
“No, yours is,” June says as she joins me, and then Sarah comes up on my other side.
“No, this is,” I counter. “You can see the lighthouse and the ocean. And I know that at night you can see the lights from town. It’s magical up here, just like Annabelle said.”
“What she didn’t say was that she has a team of about fifty people who came up here the next day after the party and put everything away.”
“Well, that takes the fun out of the illusion, doesn’t it?” Sarah says with a smile. “Someday, I’d love to have a place with a view like this. I love the ocean.”
Sarah rests her head on my shoulder, June takes my hand, and the three of us just stand there, watching the storm.
“I dreamed of this,” June whispers. “Of the three of us being together again, just like this. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day it would happen.”
“And yet, here we are.” I smile at her. “We should go down for hot chocolate and cookies.”
“I brought them to you,” Annabelle says from behind us and sets the tray on the dresser. She wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. “Seeing the three of you like that took me back twenty years to when you were just young girls, thick as thieves, daydreaming up here in this tower together. My sweet girls.”