The Threadbare Heart

Love was the one thing Lily always thought she did better than her mother. She believed that she knew exactly what love took, what it cost and what it meant - and she thought of her long marriage to Tom as proof of it. But in the short period between Christmas 2007 and the start of fire season, everything she understood about love unraveled. That’s when Lily realized how very little she knew about the way love worked.

Would you do it all again, knowing what you know now? her mother asked. Eleanor was 75 years old, about to be married again herself, and hoping that this time she might get it right. In a heartbeat, Lily said - not only because she believed it, but because she knew it was what her mother needed to hear.