“I love you,” she said to Esme, and Esme said it back.
“I love you,” she said to Leo, and Leo said it back.
To her mom and dad. Her brother. Ada, Caro, Kasey. They all said it back.
Rosemarie was tired and wanted to be in the sun. “We promised we’d do Raft Summer, so let’s do Raft Summer. We don’t break our promises,” she said.
57
Ada
“The lake is lazy today,” Ada said from her raft with her fingertips in the cool water. It was something Grayson said on days when the water didn’t move as much. They were all in their rafts in front of the Castelow lake house.
Ada let herself think about Trey for a split second before she closed her eyes and made him go away. She wasn’t worried about him anymore. She wasn’t worried about her mom anymore either. Holly Plum had made a promise and she’d kept it when she checked herself into rehab in Adora Springs. Ada and Taylor and their brothers already had plans to go visit her together next week, after she had some time to get settled.
Rosemarie was dying and there was nothing Ada could do about it, but no one knew when. As much as an unscheduled life terrified Ada, knowing that today didn’t have to be the day propelled enough hope for tomorrow.
She looked at Rosemarie, remembering their Raft Summer back in high school. How blissed-out they were, knowing they’d be friends forever, no matter what.
“We were right,” Ada said loud enough for everyone to hear.
“About what?” Caro and Kasey asked at the same time.
“About everything,” Rosemarie chimed in, just knowing.
Epilogue
Kasey
Devon took the breakup really hard, but not any harder than Kasey, although she’d known it was coming. He returned to Goldie and she gave the engagement ring back to him. When he left, she cried herself to sleep for a week straight. Ada brought food and flowers like it was a funeral, but Kasey couldn’t eat. She visited Rosemarie and Caro but didn’t stay too long.
Silas came by the farmhouse and helped her fix the gutters and the post that needed to be replaced on the back porch, but they didn’t kiss, no matter how much she wanted to. He let her know he was waiting patiently, like he always had been. She wanted to honor what she’d broken with Devon and needed more time.
Maybe Devon was The One.
Maybe in a bit, she would realize it and he’d take her back. Maybe.
*
Once she decided to make her new life in Goldie for good—and after she’d gone to New York to put everything in order for the move—she kissed Silas on the porch for a long time right next to the sign she’d made that said RACKRose Farm on it.
“RACK for Rosemarie and Baby Rosy, Ada, Caro, and Kasey,” she said to him.
She could still work for LunaCrush from Goldie and she’d do that. Caro and her growing belly were going to live with Kasey in the farmhouse, and Beau was back in Nevada for now, finishing out his work contract. He and Caro talked a lot and there was a bright, heavy hope there. They’d discuss that hope when they both had some more time to breathe about it. He would return to Goldie when the baby came, when Caro was planning to start up the pie-delivery business she’d been talking about. Ada had also connected Caro with a publisher who wanted her to begin working on a cookbook as soon as possible. Kasey would help too. Happy work for everyone, little calm eyes in hurricanes of sadness.
Kasey was determined to rewrite the story of that land and that house her daddy built. Maybe she and Caroline would get their happily ever afters someday with the men they chose, but even if they didn’t, they had each other. Baby Rosy would grow up with more than one mom watching out for her, just like they all had.
Kasey had spent so much time awash with regret and couldn’t touch the bottom, but now she was finally ready to forgive herself for running away and choosing survival, for not doing enough to save her mama all those years ago.
When Kasey was a little girl, whenever she got down or frustrated about something, her mom would tell her, Take a break; don’t let it break you. She started thinking of her leaving Goldie after high school as a break so it wouldn’t break her. And Caroline’s broken shoulder had healed and was like new again.
There were so many hearts and spirits and bones breaking and healing at the same time, every day.
*
Rosemarie was sicker now, and she’d asked Kasey if she would take care of Basie. Kasey loved that dog to bits; Basie followed her everywhere and had plenty of room to run and roam on the farm. Grandma Mimi knit Basie a patchwork blanket for her dog bed, and she knit Rosemarie a bigger one to match. Sometimes when Rosemarie felt like it and it was warm enough, she sat in Angie’s chair on the porch with the blanket over her lap. Rosemarie had also told Caro that she wanted her to have all the money she’d saved up, and once again, Caro was overwhelmed by how much and how well they loved one another, the lengths they’d go.
We’ll do anything for each other.
Trey’s parents sold their houses and moved to Adora Springs, and although it wasn’t far enough, the distance made it easier for Caro to dream and breathe.
They all knew Rosemarie would be gone once the early spring magnolias bloomed again, and they leaned into loving her as much as they could. Life had proven that RACK was forever, and death would prove it too.
Not only was RACK forever, but it was protected from the rest of the world, the same way RACKRose Farm was protected from the rest of the world—right there on the edge where Kasey’s daddy had put it. Like the women it was named for and all the women of Goldie who’d stepped up to protect them—the women who knew the truth, the women they would owe and thank with smiles and winks all over Goldie as long as they lived, the women they’d swap stories about with Nosy Nancy when she visited once a week with tea and cookies—that farmhouse and that land were staunch and steeled against anything life had waiting for them.
Even the ethereal, incongruous stretch of an impossible goodbye.
Acknowledgments
As always, thank you so much to my literary agent, Kerry D’Agostino, for everything, everything! To my editor, Elizabeth Kulhanek, thank you so much for everything, everything! And thank you so much, Alli Dyer! All of you! LAKE FOREVER!
Huge thanks to Andy Dodds for everylittlebit.
Huge thanks to Theresa DeLucci for everylittlebit.
Huge thanks to the art department and everyone at Grand Central Publishing.
Huge thanks to Tareth Mitch and Kristin Nappier.
Special thanks to everyone at Temple Hill Entertainment.
Special thanks to everyone at Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Special thanks to Simon Lipskar and Writers House.
Special thanks to nostalgic country songs and Rissi Palmer and Brittney Spencer and Mickey Guyton （&c） and “Back Down South” by Kings of Leon and Kentucky sunsets and Ghibli clouds and iced yuzu tea with keto honey in a strawberry glass and crispy quinoa peanut butter cups and K-dramas and webtoons.
Wow, lots of big love and !!! and gratitude to The Chicks for making my girlfriends and me smile and laugh and cry with your beauty and music!
Thank you, dear reader. Thank you, Sarah “Muffin Mix” Mimnaugh.
A very sweet important thank you to Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook for your music and hearts and inspiration and love. And a very sweet important thank you to Lim Jaebeom, Mark Tuan, Jackson Wang, Park Jinyoung, Choi Youngjae, Kunpimook Bhuwakul, and Kim Yugyeom too.