Free Undone (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page A

into her ears and turned up her iPod to drown out the noise.
    She’d figured out most of the nuances of the tribute program. Then she’d moved over to the Web site, trying to figure out ways to make it better, which she worked on until she’d left work that evening.
    On Saturday, Paige got up early to run and then spent the afternoon in her art studio/shed while her parents worked in the yard. Her parents owned a three-bedroom house on the river. They’d bought it for the hardwood floors, big bay windows, and the massive backyard. Denise and Trevor had always dreamed of having a big yard when they retired, and now they did.
    Half a dozen large oak trees were scattered in the yard, and rose bushes and wisteria surrounded them. Jasmine climbed up the lattice over the back porch, and honeysuckle grew all along the fence. Paige’s parents had put in pavers to create a path through the grass, and built a deck right on the water. It was their little oasis.
    When Paige had moved in, her father had moved all of the stuff out of the shed and into the garage so that Paige could have an art studio. It was a small building with a window on the back wall. Shelves covered one wall, while another housed a sink and a tiny counter.
    She’d quickly made it her own space, painting the inside walls a lime green, filling the shelves with her painting supplies, hanging white lace curtains over the window, and putting up that blessed fan. The outside of the shed matched her parents’ house, white with blue trim, and one side of it was covered in lattice wound with jasmine. Her parents had been kind enough to give her a little oasis of her own.
    *  *  *
    On Sunday morning, Paige woke up to a clear blue sky. She pulled on her bathing suit, a tank top, and a pair of running shorts. She threw a big beach towel, sunscreen, some lip gloss, and a book into her beach bag and headed into the kitchen.
    “You leaving soon?” Trevor asked over his newspaper.
    “Yeah, in about five minutes,” Paige said, grabbing a plastic bottle from the cupboard and filling it with ice water.
    The doorbell rang and Paige heard her mother answer the door. Grace laughed as she walked into the kitchen with Denise.
    “You tell your grandmother that I’m going to go down and get some of that chicken pot pie of hers. I’ve never had anything that amazing in my life.”
    “I’ll tell her. Hi, Mr. Morrison.” Grace waved from the doorway.
    “Hello. Have you and your grandmother been busy?” he asked over his coffee cup.
    “Lately we have been. What about you? How’s everything going here?”
    “Pretty good. Retirement is mighty fine.”
    “You girls have fun,” Denise said, sitting down at the table next to Trevor.
    “We will,” Paige said, walking over to her parents and kissing them on the cheeks. “I’ll see you guys later.”
    “Love you, Little Miss,” Trevor called after her as they walked out of the kitchen.
    “Little Miss?” Grace asked, looking at her.
    “Nickname that I’ve had all my life,” Paige said while slipping on her leather flip-flops.
    Five minutes later, they pulled into Lula Mae’s driveway. The sound of a lawn mower greeted them as they got out of Grace’s vintage yellow Volkswagen Bug. Paige followed Grace up the steps to a whitewashed beach house with a red roof and a screened-in front porch.
    “Grams,” Grace called out as they walked in the front door. “We’re here.”
    The house was simple with beige tile running through the hallway and walls that were painted a soft peach. Before they rounded the corner, a loud tapping noise made Paige look to her right where a large but beautiful black and gray dog came skidding across the tile.
    “Sydney, sit,” Grace said, putting her hand out.
    The dog sat at Grace’s feet, her feathery tail sweeping the floor as it wagged back and forth.
    “Good girl,” Grace said, scratching her head. “This is my brother’s dog, Sydney. He comes over on Sundays to mow the