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now at the Valley Oaks Labor Day picnic, out at the park by the baseball fields with half the town. Her natural curls would be wound extra tight because of the humidity and sticking to her head like a blond swim cap, but she wouldn’t give a hoot.
    â€œJasmyn, don’t change the subject. You can’t go through loss like this again, especially not with a bunch of strangers, no matter how regular they seem. We have to get you home.”
    Home. Home …
    Funny thing. San Diego felt like home. Two weeks ago, she landed, drove straight from the airport to the beach, and dipped her toes into the ocean—the Pacific Ocean!—and an indescribable sense of coming home, of homecoming , washed over her. It was as real as the wave that immediately knocked her flat.
    Amazing, awesome, and really, really weird.
    Then things got even weirder.
    The feeling didn’t go away. For days on end she swam in salt water thatdrenched her over and over again with a deep, bone-melting, laugh-out-loud happiness. She had come home.
    Liv slipped naturally into the home scene. She was the fairy godmother, the heart on two legs, the mother figure. A version of mom that Jasmyn wished she had experienced.
    How on earth was she going to explain such things to Quinn?

    In the end, Jasmyn did not try to explain such things to Quinn. She gave her friend Casa de Vida’s address and phone number and made a bunch of silly promises, such as she would lock the door, lock the windows, and not give out any PIN numbers or passwords.
    Beyond exhausted now, Jasmyn followed Liv through the rooms of Cottage Eleven, blinked, and tried not to cry at the gift being handed to her. Was she awake or asleep? She wasn’t sure.
    The tour ended back in the living room.
    Liv turned to her. “Jasmyn, dear, what’s wrong?”
    She shook her head and shrugged. “It’s so…so…” She shrugged again.
    Liv leaned in until she was eye-level with her. “Good or bad?”
    Jasmyn whispered, “It’s so good it’s almost bad.”
    Liv clapped her hands once and laughed. “I know just what you mean.”
    Jasmyn wasn’t sure she did, but how else could she say it? Not two hours ago she had the clothes on her back, a pair of sweats, and a stack of magazines inside a beach bag, and nothing else. Now she had a roof over her head and a home that was filled with necessities and then some. Was it too good to be true?
    Of course it was too good to be true. Everything was borrowed. The home was temporary.
    â€œJust remember that you are welcome to stay for as long as you need. Or want.” Liv smiled. “I’m right next door in Ten if you need me. Coco is on your other side in Twelve, but she couldn’t hear fireworks set off in her kitchen. Now get some rest. We’ll tackle the details tomorrow.”
    She was out the door before Jasmyn could thank her properly. But what was properly for such an enormous gift?
    She roamed back through the cottage. It was small, quaint, and almostas pretty as Liv’s office. The walls were a soft yellow. The hardwood floors gleamed. The bathroom and galley kitchen were spotless.
    While she had been on the phone, Liv and the others had created a haven. The living room invited her to sit and relax with a padded rocker, floor lamp, and small television. A fragrant bouquet of flowers graced the wide, built-in seat in front of the bay window.
    The kitchen was empty except for a few dishes and cups in the glass-front cupboards, a coffeemaker on the counter, and food from the picnic inside the fridge.
    Even sparsely furnished, the bedroom surpassed her motel room when it came to cozy. A multicolored quilt covered the rollaway. On top of it sat a stack of fluffy sea-green towels. Soft light shone from a single reading lamp on a TV tray.
    Clothes hung in the closet and toiletries were spread across the vanity in the bathroom. Piper, the beautiful young woman from Four who