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"Did you go to Dunleavy’s again?" Harper asked "I noticed you got in rather late last night"

Dora gave Harper a warning glare but it was too late Maht that coain?" she asked

"Mamaw, retract your antennas Dev and I are just two old friends who are catching up on old time ’Nuff said"

"Old friends, huh?" Malasses "I have to say, hearing the narave; vu" She looked pointedly at Dora’s short nightgown "Though if you were sixteen, I wouldn’t allow you to still be lounging in your nightgown at ten o’clock in theyour walk now?"

Dora stifled a yawn "I know, I know I’ll walk later"

"I’ to be supportive"

Harper placed the stems of a clutch of the small yellow roses into her water bottle and carried them to Mamaw "All I could find, I’ down her book to accept the flowers She delicately plucked the browned, curling leaves fros, look how stunted they’ve becorant they took arden?" Harper asked, pouring herself a glass of iced tea fro herself into a chair beside them "There always used to be lots of flowers and butterflies out there There’s not much left out there now but the weeds"

Dora sat up in the chair to peer out at the garden that was located along the border of the porch It was a srass that bordered the Cove She had studied horticulture in college and, though she’d never received her degree, instead choosing to leave college to ardener courses One of the aspects she’d loved e that surrounded the house itself

She’d planted an extensive garden the first year that they’d y into the project She could still remember how fulfilled she’d felt at the end of an afternoon in the garden, covered with dirt and sweat, grinning like a fool After Nate carew and his needs becaht

"It looks like arden in Summerville," she said with a hint of cynicisle in no time Especially out here on the islands The heat is a furnace blast and the hu" She sat back and turned to Harper "You ?"

Harper lifted her hair fro" She let her hair drop and said pointedly, "So should you"

"Nag, nag, nag," Dora teased "I swear, just walking leaves ain at the rearden "Mamaw, I have to say, roses were always an aenous plants on a barrier island"

"I don’t care I love roses There isn’t rant you But I try When I think of the beautiful walled garden at my Charleston house" Mamaw said wistfully "The cairls? The loveliest dappled lightThe wall protected the plants fro sihed "The coot the best of me, I’m afraid I couldn’t keep up and eventually I just lost the heart for it I do ly well here, despite the odds Those poor plants are just old and tired, like I a "Not so old"