Evelyn laughed, her eyes lit up with mischief. “See, Lillian? She drives all the way back up here to see us, and she can’t even be nice to her mother.”

Lillian, Juniper’s aunt, chuckled from her perch on the worn sofa. “I don’t see the big deal either. The cutest little boy in her first-grade class thought her name was Jupiter. I mean, Jupiter is a great planet, you know. Juni, isn’t it a gas giant?” They all burst into laughter, the sounds of their family filling the home.

Juniper shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips despite herself. “I’m done with you both. Complete wackos, the pair of you.”

Evelyn winked at her sister. “See? She moves down into the forest, and I figured she’d like those trees now.”

“Yeah well… I only came back up here to take this chair home with me,” Juniper retorted, gesturing to the antique recliner she was sitting in, its faded fabric a testament to generations of family stories.