Chapter 33 Maintaining Distance

• The days following her parents’ unexpected return were nothing short of excruciating for Celia. She could feel the emotional chasm widening between her and Alexander, and it was tearing her apart. She sat in the garden one afternoon, fiddling with the petals of a daisy, her thoughts as scattered as the leaves in the wind.
• Alexander had been avoiding her—not in an obvious way that her parents might notice, but in ways that only she could discern. He no longer lingered in the kitchen with her in the mornings, and his once-warm glances had been replaced with a polite detachment.
• “Celia, sweetheart,” her mother called from the veranda. “Why don’t you come inside? We’re about to head into town for dinner.”