Free Sunflower Lane by Jill Gregory Page A

night?” Annabelle asked.
    “No regular job. She babysits here and there, but not every night. I happen to know she had a little tiff with her boyfriend and is free tonight, so if you want to go out, give her a call.”
    Sophie’s stepdaughter, Ivy, was fifteen, very pretty, very responsible, and had babysat for Megan, Michelle, and Ethan several times, although not in the last few months. “I’ll do that. Thanks, Sophie.”
    She was fairly certain Sophie had overheard the rest of the conversation, too. The part about her brother. She gritted her teeth as she headed out of the bakery.
    There were definitely advantages to living in the big city, whether it was Philadelphia or LA. There, everyone didn’t know everything about your life, your business. Your dating habits and social life.
    Or lack thereof.
    The truth was, she was nowhere near ready to even think about dating again. She’d gone out only a couple of times, and only because her friends kept pestering her.
    “You have to get your feet wet again before you relearn how to swim,” Charlotte always said, trying to be helpful.
    But dating didn’t seem like swimming. More like diving off the high board with your hands tied behind your back.
    Even her closest friends didn’t get that she really was unlucky in love. It was practically a family tradition.
    Of course, according to the family stories, her grandparents had been happy together at first—living at the ranch her grandfather built on Sunflower Lane, running cattle on eight hundred acres that Big Jed Cooper—her grandfather’s bank-robbing father—had purchased in the late 1800s,supposedly with what was left of his stolen loot after the bulk of it disappeared.
    Grandpa Joe and Grandma Lillie had been very much in love and were thrilled when their first daughter, Lorelei, was born. Life had been good on Sunflower Lane.
    But a few years later, on the very night that Annabelle’s mother, Meg, came into the world, Grandpa Joe had gone out to the barn one more time to check on his horses and had been killed instantly by lightning.
    Everything changed in that moment. Her grandmother’s joy at the birth of a second daughter turned to devastation. Grandma Lillie had tumbled into a dark, fathomless depression, and though she dutifully went through the motions of caring for her newborn, she could barely stand to look at her, much less delight in her coos and smiles and tiny accomplishments. So Annabelle’s mother had not only grown up without ever having a chance to know her own father; her own mother never bonded with her.
    While Lorelei’s birthday continued to be a day of celebration, of parties and cake and gifts, Meg’s birthday had always been regarded by Grandma Lillie as a day of sadness and gloom. A day she stayed in bed, and stared out her window. Mourning.
    On the day Annabelle’s mother married, she’d written in her diary that she looked forward to being married to Sam Harper forever. But Annabelle’s father abandoned her and his two daughters when Trish was twelve and Annabelle only nine. He’d run off with a divorced cocktail waitress named Lainie Durant who’d worked at a run-down little bar halfway up Eagle Mountain.
    Aside from a birthday card or two the first few years after he left, neither of the sisters had heard from their father again.
    Fortunately, Trish and Ron had been blissfully happy together in their marriage. They’d built a wonderful life onSunflower Lane. They had three great kids, and Ron was making good money. They were planning a trip for the entire family to Disneyland.
    Until the plane crash.
    Annabelle’s own experiences with the opposite sex hadn’t exactly given her confidence in the dating and mating arena. First, she’d been lied about in high school, thanks to Clay and his pals, and then . . . then there had been Zack.
    Zack, the perfect man. Cute, fun, joking. Successful.
    And a complete ass.
    Who for way too long hadn’t had the decency to give up