April arrived in Evergreen Hollow the way it always did: slow, shy, and then suddenly all at once. One morning the snow was still piled against the garage, and the next, the backyard pond was ringing with the sound of dripping eaves and Clara’s delighted squeals as she discovered mud puddles.

The Kane family settled into the gentle rhythm of a new season.

Lily finished her freshman year at Denver with a 3.92 GPA, second-line minutes that had crept into first-line territory, and an ...