Lucas didn’t know much about adult hopes. All he knew was that the buffet had macaroni, the pool was big, and that he’d made a new friend—a little girl named Lucy who brought her dolls to the deck every afternoon. Her company was soft, quiet, and comforting.
They first met near the railing, Lucy spreading a tiny picnic blanket for her dolls. Lucas offered her a plastic dinosaur in return. She giggled. From that moment on, they were inseparable. While the Harrigans argued, the kids built little worlds of make-believe under the sun watched over by Lucy’s mom Daisy O’Hara who’d quietly read a book a few feet away.