She also needed to avoid her natural inclination to try to patch things up between him and Daniel and their parents. She’d promised to stay out of that and she intended to keep her word…unless, of course, she saw that they were making no progress on their own. Then she’d have a duty to step in, whether anyone appreciated her efforts or not. For the most part, she managed to keep her thoughts of Patrick at bay as she washed windows till they glistened, scrubbed floors till they shone and dusted every single knickknack and surface throughout the four-room house. She lingered for several minutes over the photo of her parents taken during a family outing just a few months before her high school graduation. At that point they’d had no idea that she intended to leave Maine and go to college in Boston. She’d still been their cherished daughter. “Oh, Mama,” she whispered. “I never meant to hurt the two of you. I just needed you to respect my choice.
