The Strawberry Patch Pancake House (Dream Harbor, #4)

by Laurie Gilmore

Old folks were fonts of wisdom. Small children were just …wild.

like it had all been as magical as it was horrendous.

This did not feel like the time for abstract, philosophical thoughts on what happened after death.

‘How do you do that?’ he asked. Iris blinked. Do what? Turn a glance into an entire relationship in her head? Easy. A very active imagination. Probably not what he was asking though.

There was his answer. His perfectly reasonable, obviously correct answer. And he hated it.

He never knew that so much of being a parent was just feeling helpless in the face of your kid’s struggles.

‘It’s not really about how many of everything you have, it’s more about having people who love you. And as long as you have some of those, then you have a family.

‘Totally fine,’ he lied, returning to his place on the other side of the island. ‘Now, mushrooms or peppers in your omelet?’ ‘Both.’ ‘You got it.’ Mushrooms, peppers, his whole damn heart. She could have all of it.

It turned out that fantasy was less hot the longer it went on.