Although she’d grown up in New England and still spent a fair amount of time there, Juliette could probably count on two hands the number of times she’d visited New Hampshire. And many of those times involved visits to see her cousin who’d moved to the state the previous year. During those visits to Pelham, she’d thought the town was rural. The more she drove through Avon, the more she realized how wrong she’d been about where her cousin lived. While Pelham had some small farms and a charming town green, it also had one fast-food restaurant, a chain coffee shop, and two traffic lights. So far, she’d seen no sign of any of those things here.
“You want to take the next left,” Holly instructed her.
Since Holly hadn’t seen her family in months, she’d offered to make the drive with her. She planned to stay with her parents for a little while and then catch a flight back to New York.
Juliette turned onto a road that actually had a sidewalk and a street sign. They’d crossed into town about ten minutes ago, and many of the streets she’d traveled so far were unmarked. Evidently, the town didn’t want to make it easy for outsiders to find their way around.
Judging by the buildings lining both sides of the road, Main Street was the heart of Avon. On the right-hand side, a large municipal complex stood. The sign out front stated it housed the town hall, the police station, and the fire station. A store called Gorham’s Shop and Save was across the street from the complex. It shared its parking lot with a small movie theater and a liquor store. Considering the old-school marquee listing the four movies currently being shown mounted over the entrance, she didn’t expect to find any luxury loungers or IMAX screens inside. A mom-and-pop-style diner and coffee shop completed the businesses on the left side of the road. Not long after passing the municipal complex, she spotted a series of school buildings and the town’s public library.
“Let me guess, this is considered downtown,” she said as they passed the post office and a hair salon.
“There are a few other businesses scattered around town, but yeah, I guess you’d consider this the downtown area. It makes 5th Avenue look dull, doesn’t it?” Holly asked, laughing. “It’s not as bad as you think. We don’t have many retail businesses here, but North Conway is only about forty minutes away. You can find just about anything you need there. And since it tends to be a popular tourist destination, they also have some nice little artist studios and boutiques. Ashford, the next town over, has some restaurants and shopping as well.”
She’d have to keep a visit there in mind for another day because once she got out of the car today, she had no intention of getting back inside it.
“Unless you want to do a little exploring, you’ll want to take a right at the stop sign.”
She wouldn’t mind getting a better look at the town she planned to call home for the next few months. However, they’d spent roughly seven hours in the car today, and she needed another bathroom break. “Maybe I’ll do some tomorrow.”
A few miles and a handful of turns later, she got her first glimpse of Avon Lake. “I expected the lake to be much smaller.” Why, she didn’t know, but she’d expected it to be about the same size as the one not far from her cousin’s house. The body of water on her left was at least fifty times larger, if not more.
Holly reached for her purse, pulled out her cell phone, and typed a message. “This is the third-largest lake in the state. If you ask my brother, he can probably tell you exactly how many acres it covers and how deep it is. All I know is it is huge. Right now, we’re on the southernmost portion of it,” Holly explained as they drove.
Homes of various sizes and ages dotted the shore. Several had docks leading into the water, and when the temperatures warmed up, Juliette assumed boats would be parked alongside many of them. The houses continued for several miles before they stopped and were replaced with trees for a short time before ending at a public beach.
“The easternmost side is actually part of Ashford. There are several restaurants right on the water over there. In the summer, people will take their boats out for a few hours and then stop at one of them for lunch or dinner. And if we’d turned onto Timberlane Road instead of Harris, we eventually would have reached the kids’ summer camp along the western section of the lake. I used to love going there.”
Since the street signs remained sparse, she didn’t know which roads Holly referred to—not that it really mattered. She didn’t need a summer camp.
“Besides the campground, is there anything else where we’re headed?”
“Nope. The Wrights own almost all the land and have for about a hundred years or so. Again, if you ask my brother, he’ll know. He’s a walking textbook of town facts.”
The sound of a rooster crowing came from the device in Holly’s hand. Why her friend used such an annoying sound to alert her to text messages was a mystery to Juliette.
“Mom’s on her way. My sister is with her.”
When Holly had informed her mom she was headed home and explained the reason why, Eleanor offered to go grocery shopping so Juliette wouldn’t need to worry about it. Although fully capable of doing the task herself, she’d accepted the offer immediately, since it meant she could avoid any public places for at least a little while. The food and other items Eleanor picked up wouldn’t last forever, but perhaps by the time she needed to replace them the media would’ve found a new juicy story to focus on.
“How long do you think you’ll stay with your parents?”
Eleanor and Holly’s twin brother, Marc, frequently visited New York, so she knew them both well. She’d only met Holly’s dad and sister a handful of times. Regardless, she knew the Lamberts were a close-knit family much like hers. But no matter how much you adored your family, after a while you usually wanted to get away from them. At least that tended to be the case for her. Holly had a similar personality, so she didn’t see it being any different for her.
“A few days. A month. I don’t know. I might even go visit my cousin in Maine before I head back home.”
“Is that the one who had a baby in September?” They hadn’t passed a single house in about ten minutes, and Juliette kept a lookout for any signs they were almost at their destination.
“Yes. And right before Valentine’s Day, she and her husband moved into the house they spent the last eight months building. The road you want is about another mile or so on the right.”
Unfortunately, the information didn’t help her much. She’d never been great at determining distance. When she received any kind of directions, she needed landmarks, not the number of miles she needed to travel before turning left or right. And forget about telling her to drive east or
west. Unless the words were attached to specific streets in the city, they had no meaning to her.
Eventually, a road came into view on her right. A sign with the words Wright’s—Private Way hung from a pole.
Holly gestured toward the road before slipping her cell phone back into her purse. “This is the road you want.”
Calling this dirt path a road was a bit of stretch, but at least it was well maintained.