CARSON

"You should join us for a walk," I said to Ashley as I saw her sitting outside, pressing her phone.

She shook her head and smiled briefly at me. Then she bowed her head again and continued to scroll through her phone.

She still hadn't relaxed with us. Brody and I made up our minds to not give up on pulling her close to us. We wanted her to feel very comfortable around us. But it seemed like we still had a lot of work to do.

It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to agree to swim ...