“Hey, Lil, what’s up? I just changed the lock on the front door, and I even spiffed the place up a bit. It’s still pretty dreary and dusty around here, though.” Lilly heard her sister’s voice, clear and bright—and mildly apologetic—through the line. She pulled the phone from her ear and stared at the screen; the full five bars were illuminated. Damn it. Just this once, why couldn’t the cell service in Florida be spotty? You’d think with the almost-daily rain showers and weekly storms, the cell towers would have a hard time maintaining the status quo, but no such luck. So far, call quality had been crystal clear during both of the awkward phone calls she’d had to make. Well, at least her own sister probably wouldn’t yell at her. Much. “Lilly?” She started at the muffled voice on the other end of the line and clapped the phone back to her ear in time to hear her Kate ask, “So, when you coming home?” “Uh…” This was it, the moment of truth. She tucked her legs beneath her on the overstuffed floral-print sofa, turned her face away from the concern in her cousin Alexandra’s eyes, gripped the phone tight and, for a moment, clung to Kate’s voice like she would have in the old days.
