Ashley
The aroma of roasting turkey and cinnamon-spiced apples wafted through the Collin estate, wrapping around me like a warm embrace as I stood in Eleanor's sprawling kitchen. Outside the bay windows, gentle snow had begun to fall again, transforming the already unique landscape into something truly magical.
I paused, potato masher in hand, to watch Harvey, Zach and Zach's father building a snowman in the side yard, my son's delighted squeals carrying through the glass.
"He has Zach's laugh," Eleanor remarked, appearing beside me with a bowl of cranberries. Her eyes, though clouded with age, sparkled with the same intensity I remembered from years ago. "That full-bodied, uninhibited joy. Zach used to laugh like that too, before..."
She trailed off, but the implication hung between
