She started reading. She frowned angrily and made a grunt of disapproval. But then she read to the bottom of the page and looked at him with a shocked expression. She put down that page and read further. Her eyes glistened and her lips moved as she read. She lifted her gaze from the page to look at Troy. “Is this true?”

“Does she lie? Because she was taken from the restaurant where I found her back to her cottage in a wheelchair.”

Grace shook her head. “She’s bossy and controlling and uppity. She doesn’t lie. That I know of. Well, except for that note, but when confronted, she admitted it.”

“Read it,” he said, nodding to the pages.

She read on, getting to the third page. She gave a huff of laughter but had to wipe her eyes at the same time. “This is so Winnie. She thinks I’m completely incompetent. If I don’t go to San Francisco and live with her for at least six months and learn everything there is to know about her finances I will bungle it and be completely wiped out in six months after she’s gone.” She looked at Troy. A couple of tears ran down her cheeks. She gave her head a little forlorn shake. “She really cares about me. In a completely insulting way. If she’s so worried, why doesn’t she just leave it all to a cat or something?”

“She loves you. She’s just used to telling people what to do. It would get on my nerves, too.”

“She’s a pain in the ass,” Grace said with a hiccup of emotion.

“But she wants to make it right with you. Before...you know.”

Grace put down the letter. Without explaining what she was doing, she grabbed her personal cell and dialed a number. As he watched, she was pursing her lips. They’d become red around the edges and her nose grew pink and wet. She wiped at her face. Then she spoke into the phone. “Mikhail. Winnie finally found a way to break me. She’s dying.”

* * *

Ray Anne had given it a lot of thought. She couldn’t make Ginger less sad; she couldn’t help her get beyond her grief and there was no way to replace the life that had been taken from her. But it had been nine months since the baby died and she could get her moving.

When Ginger got up in the morning, she stumbled into the kitchen in her shapeless T-shirt and Capri-length leggings, her hair all lank and flat and ratty. She’d barely gotten down three swallows of her first cup of coffee when Ray Anne challenged her. “Well, buttercup, I’m taking you on an outing. We’re going to Eugene for the day. We’re going to shop and have a nice lunch and go to the beauty shop.”

“Thanks, Ray, but I’d rather just stay here, if you don’t mind.”

“But I do mind, honey, because we’ve gotta do something. What you’ve been doing isn’t working. You need a fresher-upper.” She smoothed her hand over Ginger’s hair and resisted the urge to say Ack. “A cut, some color, some new clothes. I’m going to get in the shower while you have your coffee. Make yourself some cereal or toast or both. You’ll need your strength.”

“Ray, really...I’m just not interested.”

“Believe me, it’s necessary.”

“Look, I don’t have money to spend on clothes that don’t matter, that I won’t wear.”

“I’m taking care of that for now, but we have to do something about your money situation, too. Once you’re fixed up a little bit, we’re going to find you a job.”

“I’m not sure I can...”

“I want you to try. It doesn’t have to be a fancy job. We can go out to the beach and see if Cooper and Sarah need help in the bar. Spring is here, summer is on the way and the beach gets real busy. Maybe Cliff needs a waitress or one of the businesses in town needs clerical help. But you can’t look like a vagrant if you mean to work with the public. Ginger, you have to do something with your time. You can’t sit around and think all the time. It’s not helping.”

“But I’m not staying here!”

“As far as I can tell, you have no idea what you’re going to do or where you’re going to do it. So we should just act like you need to get your life moving forward and part of that is work. Even if you leave in a few weeks.”

“Look, I’ll just call my mom, have her pack up a couple of boxes of clothes I left there and—”

“Ginger, honey, I’m sure those clothes you left behind don’t fit you any better than the ones you brought. Now, you keep an open mind and come along with me. I promise I won’t force anything on you that you don’t like. I’m not going to make you dress like me,” she added, then laughed.

“I don’t want you to do this,” Ginger said. “I’m not your problem. I just want to be left alone.”

“I know, baby,” she said softly. “I know you just want to sink in a hole and die. Want to know how I know? Because I’ve sort of been where you are. Not as bad, but still... I don’t usually talk about this, but when I was real young, way younger than you, I had a baby that didn’t live. She was stillborn, so I didn’t get to know her, didn’t get used to her. Because I was so young my folks sent me to Portland to stay with your daddy and his family until she was born. I wasn’t married, still in high school, no reason everyone had to know, right? Way back then, we worried a lot more about reputations. And I wasn’t real sure who the daddy was, so... Well, there’ve been times in my life when I made some hasty choices.”

Ginger just stared at her, eyes wide, mouth open.

“I held her for a long time before I let her go and the nurses didn’t rush me. I wasn’t even going to keep her—I figured she could do a lot better than me! I didn’t have much going for myself back in the day. Oh, that was so long ago. But for the longest time after that I just wanted to die, myself. Then my mom and dad both died a few years later and I was so alone. And then I really did want to sink in a hole and die. I didn’t know what to do. I still don’t know what to do. So you know what I do when there’s a tragedy? When my life is falling apart? I try really hard to do the best I can. I wake up in the morning, put my feet on the floor, walk. I put on clean clothes every day. I fix myself to look like I’m getting through life even if everything inside me says I won’t make it another day. I mostly pretend, have a good hour here and there, then I collapse and cry because I just can’t do it, then I put my feet on the floor again and take another step.”

Ginger didn’t say anything, but a tear ran down her cheek.

“When you came along, I kind of felt like an auntie. You were a gift to me. We had so much fun playing, dressing up, watching movies, going on little trips together, having sleepovers. We can do this.”

Ginger shook her head, another tear sliding down her cheek.

“Now, you don’t have to tell me what I already know—getting a haircut and a pair of jeans that actually fit—that won’t help much. It’s just a shallow remedy. My friend Lou says I invented shallow.” Ray Anne smiled. “I think she’s secretly jealous I can still walk in those spike heels.”

“Ray...”

Ray Anne held up a hand. “I know, I get a little melodramatic. A little pushy, too. I can’t fix what you feel, Gingersnap. I know I can’t. But I can get you a good haircut, put you in a decent pair of jeans and get you some underwear that’s not shameful just in case you ever have to be taken to an emergency room. And don’t you worry about the money because if I can look at my pretty Ginger again, it’s worth my life savings. And if it makes you feel one inch better, it’s the right thing to do. Now eat something for breakfast—you’re wasting away. I’ll be ready to go in forty-five minutes. And it’s going to be a busy day.”