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LOTTY POPPED ANOTHER huckleberry in her mouth as she meandered through the booths dotting the street. Her hands were stained purple from holding the juicy berries, but it was worth it. It was the second day of The Huckleberry Festival and Walden’s town square was bursting with tourists. She passed the large stand where several people anxiously awaited the results of the cook-off, and stood on one of the metal chairs so she could get a clear view of the beach.

Jason and the boys had been happily building a sandcastle when she’d decided to wander off and check out some of the vendors. Now Jason and Ty were still busy building and Aiden was covering himself with sand. Trinity sat nearby in a lawn chair, glancing back and forth between her own children and Jason.

“Hey, I brought you a smoothie.” Jocelyn appeared by the chair Lotty was standing on. Lotty hopped down next to her and took the cup she held out. “It’s called Huckleberry Heaven so it has to be good.”

“Thank you,” Lotty said before taking a sip. “Ooh, that is good.”   

Jocelyn sipped her own smoothie, a dark green concoction which Lotty was certain couldn’t have “Heaven” in its name. Maybe “Aura of Algae” or “Sucky Spinach.”

“Nikki’s on her way up here,” Jocelyn said. “Michael’s at the beach and forgot sunscreen so she had to run it to him.” She stopped and picked up a candle from one of the booths, smelled it, and set it down. “She seems to be better the last couple of weeks. Don’t you think?”

Lotty nodded. “She actually wrote to Brent last weekend. She still doesn’t want to see him, but she answered his letters and said she’s moving on. Also, I think finding a way that she can earn an income has taken a lot of stress off.”

“You think she can make enough from her blog to support her and the kids?”

“Yeah, I do,” Lotty said, smiling at Mrs. Becker as people cheered and she waved her trophy in the air across the square. “She’s had tons of followers for years. I just helped her monetize it. She’s already earning decent money, but Jason also told her he has a few jobs around the office if she’d like to work for him part time as well.” Excitement bubbled inside Lotty as she talked about Nikki’s blog. A part of her that had long been missing had returned as she’d helped Nikki find advertisers for her website. Her business skills came back like muscle memory and she’d loved every minute. 

Jocelyn nodded behind Lotty and Lotty turned to see Nikki approaching. “Guess what I just heard?” Nikki said. “It made my week.” A smile lit up her face. Lotty hadn’t seen many of those on Nikki lately and seeing her friend happy instantly brought a smile to her own face.

“What?” Jocelyn asked, handing Nikki the smoothie she’d bought for her.

“Oh, thanks.” Nikki shoved the straw in her mouth. “Yum, that is awesome. What am I drinking?”

“Huckleberry Heaven,” Jocelyn answered.

Lotty nudged her friend’s shoulder. “What did you hear that made your week, Nik?”

“Oh, right.” She set the smoothie on the table at the photography booth they stood next to so she could use both arms while she talked. “I gave Michael sunscreen and was heading back up, when I heard your husband talking to Trinity.”

Lotty raised an eyebrow, wondering how hearing Jason talk to Trinity had made Nikki’s week.

“He was gushing to her about how much he loved his wife,” Nikki said, wrapping an arm around Lotty.

“Gushing? I’ve never heard Jason gush in my life.”

“Well, today he was definitely a gusher.” Nikki smiled. “Does anyone else suddenly feel like gush isn’t even a word? I’ve said it enough now I feel like I made it up. Gush, gush, gush.”

Jocelyn laughed. “What was he saying?” 

“I wish I could have heard what Trinity said to get him going. All I heard was him telling her that the best decision he ever made was to marry Lotty, that she was an amazing mother who was patient and loving, that she was fun and had a great sense of humor, and that he adored her.” Nikki grabbed Lotty’s hand. “And that was his exact word. Adore.”

Warmth trickled its way down to Lotty’s toes as if she’d swallowed a ray of sunshine. Even though Jason had told her several times over the past few weeks how much he loved her, it never got old.

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Jocelyn said.

“It is,” Nikki agreed. “But the horrible side of me was just as excited by Trinity’s devastated look while he listed off all of Lotty’s amazing qualities.”

“Girls, girls, look,” Mrs. Becker moved surprisingly fast for an older woman and shoved her trophy in the middle of the three women. “I won again.”

Nikki hugged the beaming bakery-owner. “Good job, Mrs. Becker.”

“Ruth thought she was going to get me with those huckleberry cream puffs, but my torte put them to shame. Tortes beat puffs every time. Besides, I heard she used store-bought huckleberries. Can you imagine? That reminds me, I heard something else.” She wrapped an arm around Nikki. “Is it true that your husband’s trial got moved up?”

Lotty shook her head. Leave it to Mrs. Becker to transition from huckleberries to Brent’s trial in two seconds, but Nikki didn’t seem bothered. “Yes, that’s true. My soon to be ex-husband’s trial will be in the middle of September now,” Nikki said.

Mrs. Becker nodded. “I also heard about your move. Do you like living in the country?”

Lotty laughed. “Don’t we all live in the country? That’s what’s great about Montana.”

“You know what I mean. She’s outside of Walden now.” Mrs. Becker lowered her voice. “The Harper Ranch is definitely country.”

Nicki smiled. “I do like it. We’re only five miles away and they’re letting us stay there rent-free until this whole Strawberry Lake Estates mess gets figured out. It’s like a ghost town in that neighborhood these days.”

Lotty nodded. “It emptied out pretty quickly. Hopefully they can figure things out almost as quickly and get the land cleaned up.”

Nikki picked her smoothie up off the table.

“Oh no, you don’t want that.” Mrs. Becker took the smoothie out of Nikki’s hands and set it back down on the table. Then she opened the box she’d had tucked under her arm. “I saved some of my award-winning tortes.” She handed one to each woman.

“Mama!” Aiden yelled from behind Lotty. She turned around. Aiden was tucked under Jason’s left arm while Ty held Jason’s left hand. His right arm was wrapped around beach towels and sand toys.

“Hey,” Lotty said, taking a sand-covered Aiden from Jason. It seemed the entire beach covered his body and now it was caked on her shirt and arms.

“Your sweet son decided it would be fun to throw sand at all the people lying out on the beach,” Jason said. “We made a lot of enemies. We may need to move out of Walden entirely.” He smiled and Lotty’s insides melted. “We can come back later, but I need to get this sand off me.”

“I’m done anyway,” Lotty said. She thanked Mrs. Becker for the torte, told her friends goodbye and walked to the van with her family.

Ty talked the whole way to Jason’s dad’s house about the awesome sand castle they’d made. As they entered the kitchen, Lotty looked out back at the temporary chicken coop. Jason and his dad, Tom, had helped her build it and Tom was surprisingly excited. He’d even bought two more hens.

“Mom, we decided on a name for the newest hen,” Ty said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, Mrs. Tucker.”

Lotty tried to suppress her laugh. They wanted to name the hen after Trinity? Lotty looked at Jason, who’s eyes were dancing with laughter of his own. “Why Mrs. Tucker, Ty?”

“Remember how much Flo liked her flowers, Mom? Flo stayed in her yard for days while we were gone and Mrs. Tucker seemed kinda mad about it. I think she might feel better if we name this one after her. Dad thought it was a good idea too.”

“Oh, good. Dad agreed.”

“I just think Ty might be onto something. She was really mad. It’s the least we could do, especially after she lost that fight with the HOA about our chicken coop.”

“Yes. I’m sure this will help her feel much better,” Lotty said. “I’m pretty sure the HOA was so busy trying to figure out how to deal with deadly toxins that they ignored her claim altogether.”

“I spoke with Mayor Ross today,” Jason said. “It looks like they still don’t know how long the clean-up will take. There are more tests to be run, but he’s hoping to have an answer for everyone by the end of the month.” Lotty nodded. She’d heard the same thing from several people at the festival. She missed her home, but life was good here. She was happy. Content.

“I’m going to run these two a bath,” Jason said.

“I’ll do it. You can shower. Just let me change into some clothes that aren’t covered in sand first.” Lotty ran up the stairs into the bedroom she and Jason were staying in and changed into some clean shorts and a t-shirt. She walked to the hamper to throw her sandy clothes away and passed Jason’s cheval mirror. He’d moved it from the house last week. She stopped and stared. Maybe that mirror wasn’t so bad. The reflection had definitely improved over the past few months. Gone was the angry, self-conscious, haggard mother. In her place stood an excited, caring, wife and mom. Everything about her wasn’t perfect, but that was okay. She loved her family, loved that they wanted to be with her, that they needed her. She’d discovered a passion for hiking and camping and enjoying nature. She was a talented business-woman and felt a part of her come alive as she helped Nikki. She adored her hens and felt a sense of pride every time she looked at their coop. And now, looking at her reflection, she felt at peace. She was proud of the woman in that mirror; the one who ate too many sweets and hated running, but had learned to love that about herself. Even the owls etched into the mirror’s boarders seemed to be winking at her and telling her she was doing great.

She grabbed the boys and led them to their bathroom, where she filled the tub with water. She watched them laugh and splash and give themselves beards made of bubbles. After she got hit with several drops of water, she pulled the sliding door to the bathtub shut. As she sat there, her mind began to wander and replay the scarier parts of the summer.

She hoped Brent’s trial would bring closure and that her neighborhood could return to normal. She felt safe in Walden again and, though she enjoyed living with her father-in-law, looked forward to the time her family could return to their home. 

There was a light tap on the bathroom door and Jason entered, with wet hair and fresh clothes. He smiled and shook his head.

“What?” Lotty asked.

“I was just thinking about the last time I found you sitting in the bathroom. Your mom was staying with us and you had locked yourself inside for a moment’s peace.”

Lotty smiled. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”

“No? What about sneaking around like a crazy woman so that you—” he stopped, glancing at the bathtub and lowered his voice to a whisper “—could throw away some of their thousands of pictures without getting caught. Does that sound like you?” 

“Mmmm, nope. I don’t think so. I’ve got it all figured out. This mothering stuff is like second nature to me. Easy.”

“Good. Because I have no clue what I’m doing, so I’m going to go watch the football game while you use your second nature.”

Lotty grabbed the front of his t-shirt and pulled him toward her. He nudged her chin up toward him and traced her jawline with his fingers as he kissed her. 

How had she ever thought their marriage was over? It was only beginning. They had forever now. Forever to watch the boys grow. Forever to travel. Forever to raise hens, make Zen gardens, and master photography. Together.