When There Is Nothing Left But Love (Ashton And Scarlett)

Since I did tell my daughter that she could take time to think things through, I could not very well pester her to come home without breaking my promise. Fortunately, I had Joseph as my source of information. He told me Summer was doing relatively well, and my worries eased slightly after that.

New Year’s Eve rolled around, and the city was awash in festive colors and lights. High-spirited, Audrey and Gregory had decorated the house with banners and balloons, and I could not help but think how much nicer it would be if Summer were here to celebrate the new year with us.

Audrey noticed the distinct lack of her sister when it was dinner time. Though it was not unusual for Summer to come home late, it seemed to have occurred to Audrey that she had not seen her sister at all for the past few days. “Mommy, Daddy, where’s Summer? Is she coming back soon?”

I did not have the heart to tell her that there was a chance she might not see Summer ever again, so I tried to change the subject. “Hey, Audrey, do you see those puddings over there on the table?” I pointed at the tray of mini puddings I had baked earlier. “Mommy made them. I hid a single coin in one of them. Whoever found it while eating the pudding will have good luck for the whole of next year!”

“Really?” Audrey’s eyes sparkled in excitement, and she made a beeline to the puddings at once. “I’m going to look for the coin now!”

“What are you going to do? Eat all of them by yourself?” I laughed, teasing.

stubbornly, looking at the latter for

pleading quietly took several puddings to his plate and

twin brother next. “Greg, I need

shrugged, seemingly heedless of her plea, though I caught him

laugh. She has them wrapped

continued, an unexpected

announced as he walked into

a feast if there ever

it into his mouth. A second later,

mouth, the frown morphing into a smirk when he saw what it was. “Oh wow,