“Trent’s in there right now packing his gym gear into cardboard boxes.”

I looked down the street to the edge of my lawn, where the four-foot easement strip lay bare and trampled, the new wooden stakes snapped and lying in the dirt.

“Sarah bought those first lilac bushes eight years ago,” I said.

Nora turned her head toward me, her eyes soft.

“I remember the Saturday morning she put them in.

She had dark soil up to her elbows and dirt on her chin.”

“I promised her I’d keep this place safe for Emily,” I said.