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.

“Greg and Shaun will help me,” she said stubbornly, looking at

quietly took several puddings to his plate and started cutting

“Greg, I need your help too,” she wheedled. “I really want the good

caught him taking several puddings

laugh. She has them wrapped around her

coin seeking continued, an unexpected and

Lucas announced as

food. “Wow, that’s a feast if there ever was one. Hey, is that chocolate pudding?

to take one of my mini puddings and popped it into his mouth. A second

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