That was it.
Dad searched for her everywhere for months. He even hired a private investigator and everything. Eventually he found her shacked up in Malibu with some rich guy who could give her all she wanted. At least he agreed to a divorce. But that was another stab in his heart.
They were my examples of love and I knew well enough to know that I didn’t want that to happen to me.
“Do you see her at all?”
Ryan’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her in years, and I don’t have an address. She sends letters to my grandparents, who forward them on. She didn’t even come for Dad’s funeral.”
It would have broken Dad’s heart to know that, and I knew that day he must have wept in heaven when he saw that the woman he loved so much didn’t bother to show up at something so significant.
“God.”
“Yeah, anyway…I followed Sally’s accomplishments from the time she started competing seriously. The ’92 Olympics were it for me. I was only seven years old, but I saw her as a role model. She was seventeen and acted like she owned the world. I was terrible at track and anything athletic, but she inspired me in other ways. I always knew I wanted to write, and most of my passion definitely came from something she said about training with the sun, sun up till sun down. Then she started training well before training season even began. I did things like that in school. The year after Mom left was the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta. My dad took me, and I watched Sally carry the flag at the opening ceremony. That was perhaps the most significant memory for me, because I remembered how she looked, like that was her proudest moment—that part. It kind of helped me to be strong during that time and not fall apart.” That wasn’t the only time Sally showed strength. It was just one example, and it was significant to me because I saw her for myself.
“Brooke…” Ryan said my name on the edge of a breath. “It sounds like she’s trying to avoid something. I don’t think the problem is you.”
“But she doesn’t want me to do the exclusive.”
“Maybe it’s the whole thing.”
“I don’t know if anything can be done. My boss pulled me from the assignment.”
He smiled at me as the last traces of the embers burned out. “I might not have known you for long, but you don’t strike me as the kind of person to accept defeat.”
“I’m not.”
“Then do something about it.” He gave me a one shouldered shrug.
“Like what?” I didn’t know what to do.
“Go ask her what her problem is, but be real with her. Be you, not like you’re working, the same way you stood up to me when we first met and you practically told me to go fuck myself.”
My mouth dropped open. He laughed.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You were going to, though. Noah saved you.”
“You thought I was on drugs.”
“I still think you’re on drugs.” He grinned. “It’s the mood change. I’m not convinced yet that you aren’t.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? I’m not on drugs.”
“Okay Brooke.” He stood up and started packing. “Perhaps when I finish Brooke 101 I’ll be able to make a better judgment.”
He had to be kidding.
“What about the other stuff—are you going to forget it?”
That sexy grin appeared again as he zipped up his bag. “Night’s not over yet. We’re still on the beach. I’ll let you know when we get back. Come on, it’s going to get colder. Don’t want you catching a cold.”
The temperature had already dropped significantly. I stood up and hugged his jacket closer to my chest to keep warm. My legs were cold, but I warmed up when we started walking.
At first we walked in silence, and then we started talking about where was better to be, a big city like LA or a small port town like Wilmington.
That conversation took us right to my door, and I didn’t fail to notice that he’d walked me there. We stopped just outside it and I turned to him with the question still on my mind.
