Diana leaned forward. “What are you thinking?”
“Well, most of us can do some of our jobs from Sapphire Bay. Barbara can manage her clients’ social media accounts from anywhere in the world. Apart from her job at the restaurant, Katie can write from anywhere, too.”
“And I don’t have a job at the moment.” Diana sent Penny a questioning look. “What about you?”
“I have to fly back to Seattle. I can’t do my job from Montana but, if I could work from Seattle and only come home for one week a month, it might work.”
“That’s not fair,” Katie grumbled. “I love Los Angeles. When I’m here it feels like I’m in the middle of nowhere. If you can work from Seattle, I can go home, too.”
After seven years of living in Los Angeles and no book contract in sight, no one understood why Katie still wanted to live there. Penny leaned forward to talk to her sister. “If I could stay, I would. But if I don’t go back, I won’t get the promotion and I probably won’t have a job.”
“I agree that Grandma’s request is a little extreme,” their mom said. “But it’s only for a year. You may not get another chance to spend this much time together.”
Barbara turned to the last page of their grandmother’s will. “It says the twelve months doesn’t start right away. We still have some time to decide what we want to do.”
“That’s correct,” Mr. Rogers said. “But coming home for one week in four doesn’t meet the requirements of the will.”
Penny’s heart sank. They all loved their grandparents’ home. She didn’t want to be the person who forced it to be donated to the church, but she couldn’t see how she could stay.
“Let’s think about how it could work,” Diana said.
“It won’t change anything,” Katie muttered.
Sometimes, Penny thought, her sister could be a real pain.
Mr. Rogers glanced around the room. “Is there anything else you want to discuss?”
Penny and her sisters shook their heads.
Mabel took a deep breath. “Not at this stage. Thank you for everything you did for my mother.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll be in touch to find out what you’re doing with the house. If you decide to contest the will, please let me know as soon as possible.”
As her family left the office, Penny picked up her bag and shook Mr. Rogers’ hand.
She wasn’t looking forward to their next conversation.
Wyatt stood in front of an easel, studying the layers of color he’d added to another painting. He was still working on the portrait of the mother and child but, today, he was desperate to lose himself in the familiar world of landscapes.
This painting didn’t require him to do anything other than submit to the whims of nature, to express the tones and texture of the land in ways that were as mysterious as the rising and setting of the sun.
He picked up a brush, dabbed it onto his palette, and frowned.
Outside his studio, a dog was barking. People walked along the shore of the lake all the time, taking their pets for some exercise. It wasn’t unusual to hear a dog, but this one sounded as though it was standing beside the house, barking furiously at something he didn’t like.
Throwing open the window, he leaned over the frame and glared at the dog. It didn’t make any difference. The golden-haired Labrador had his tail on high alert, barking at a…he looked again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything…a plastic bag?
A woman with blond, curly hair rushed across the yard. “Sorry. Charlie’s hypersensitive to anything he hasn’t seen before.”
“And he hasn’t seen a plastic bag?”
“Not here. We only arrived a few days ago and everything is new. We’re staying in my grandma’s house.”
“You’re Mabel’s daughter, too?”
The woman nodded and held out her hand, stretching to shake his. “I’m Diana. You must be Wyatt. My sister said she met you the other day.”
“Penny?”
“You have a good memory.”
It wasn’t that he had a good memory—it was because it was difficult to forget her. Whenever he started working on the portrait, Penny’s face interrupted his thoughts.
“Diana!” Another woman yelled from the veranda of his neighbor’s house. Unlike Diana and Penny, this woman had bright red hair. “The timer is beeping. Do you want me to take the cookies out of the oven?”
“Only if they’re ready,” his unexpected visitor yelled back. “I’ll be home soon.”
Wyatt frowned. “Is that another sister?”
Diana nodded. “That’s Katie. She’s a writer. In total, there are four of us. Penny’s the oldest. I’m next, then there’s Barbara and Katie.”
Charlie let out a low-pitched growl.
“It’s okay, boy,” Diana reassured him. “It’s only a bag.” In one smooth motion, she bent down, grabbed the plastic bag, and scrunched it onto a ball. “See. It won’t hurt you.”
Charlie sat on his bottom, staring up at Diana with a goofy expression on his face.
“Good boy,” she crooned.
Charlie’s tail thumped against the ground.
Diana looked up at Wyatt. “I’d better check the cookies. I’m sorry if we disturbed you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
With a quiet command, Diana led Charlie back to their house, and Wyatt closed the studio window.
Picking up his brush, he stared at the landscape and tried to immerse himself in the field he was painting. For the last few weeks, he’d been blissfully unaware of everyone around him. Apart from the walkers and runners enjoying the lake, he didn’t have to worry about unexpected visitors or too much noise.
But with four sisters and a dog living in the house next door, the peace and solitude he’d enjoyed might be a thing of the past. And, unfortunately for him, he still had two paintings and a portrait to finish in the next four weeks.
Later that afternoon, Penny was sitting in her grandma’s kitchen with Diana, while Katie went through her carry-on, making sure she had everything she’d need for her return flight to Los Angeles.
“Your neighbor didn’t seem too bad to me.” Diana handed Penny a cookie. “Maybe you were more sensitive
