October arrived with a merciful coolness, the kind that made opening windows feel like a gift rather than a necessity. Mornings carried the crisp scent of fallen leaves and woodsmoke from neighbors’ first fires. The peach orchard’s leaves turned gold and crimson, drifting slowly to the grass in the gentle breeze. The creek ran clearer, colder, its banks lined with asters and the last stubborn blackberry vines heavy with tardy fruit.
Amelia Rose was ten weeks old now—a thriving, bright-eyed miracle who had doubled her birth weight and discovered her own voice in delighted coos and giggles. Her auburn curls had thickened into soft ringlets that caught sunlight like fire. Her gray-green eyes tracked everything with intense curiosity: the mobile of carved birds turning above her crib, the pla
