The Stillwater Bay Collection (Books 1-4): Stillwater Bay Series Boxed Set by Steena Holmes

Author:Steena Holmes [Holmes, Steena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780992055554
Publisher: SH Press Inc.
Published: 2016-09-09T23:00:00+00:00

6

CAMILLE

With her legs crossed beneath her, Camille turned the pages of her old scrapbook and let the nostalgia of memories ease her heavy heart.

Why couldn’t she follow her own dreams? When had she decided her own life, dreams, and goals were less important than others’? As a child she would spend hours poring through magazines, reading articles about famous gardens all over the world. She’d dreamed with her father about visiting each of them, and had even made a list at the back of her scrapbook of all the ones they’d heard about. Her father had wanted to visit Russia to see the famous Peterhof and Alexandrovsky gardens in Moscow, and she even remembered him saying that would be his retirement gift to himself.

The more she thought of Anne Marie’s idea about going on a trip, the more the idea appealed to her. With some careful budgeting, she might be able to do it in two years’ time. If—and it was a big if—sales remained steady, and as long as Paige didn’t need another emergency surgery.

“Hey.” Paige pushed open the sliding door from the backyard. “How are you feeling?” She set a paper bag down on the kitchen table.

“Hi.” She gave her sister a smile and patted the cushion beside her. “Better. I think a day of nothing but resting was exactly what I needed.” Camille closed the scrapbook on her lap.

“Wow, I haven’t seen that book in ages.”

“I know. I started thinking about Dad and our talks of traveling the world together. Do you remember how he used to talk about that fountain in the Peterhof Palace gardens?” She remembered spending hours with him looking through magazines and online images of the gardens there.

For a moment her face was clouded in sadness. “Not really. Where is that?”

“Russia.”

“Ah. Dad didn’t talk about stuff like that with me. It was more your thing, right?” Paige came and sat down beside her on the couch, leaning in and resting her head on Camille’s shoulder. “If you could go to one place within this book right now, where would you go?”

The question surprised Camille.

“Funny you should ask that.” She rested her head against her sister’s, thankful that despite the earlier tension, they could still sit like this, together. “Anne Marie wants to plan a trip.” She lightly rubbed the cover of her scrapbook, interested in her sister’s response.

“Cool. You going to go? I think you should.” Paige sat up and patted her knee before jumping up from the couch.

“You do?” Of all the ways she’d imagined this conversation going—Paige feigning interest when she had none or a barrage of questions about finances and what would she do alone with the store—this was unexpected.

Paige shrugged. “Why not? You’ve always wanted to travel. Hey, I picked up dinner from Fred’s. Chicken Parmigiana was on the menu. Hope that was okay?”

So like Paige to go from one conversation to another.

Camille’s stomach grumbled as the aroma of one of her favorite dishes filled the air. “I thought we’d already used up our eating-out allowance for the week.

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