Claire walks the wraparound deck slowly, peeking through the blinds. The furniture’s different. The kitchen’s been remodeled. The home has changed.
So has he.
She traces her way around, pausing at the spot where they once ate under a weathered pergola. Now gone.
Down at the dock, Sara calls to her. Claire joins her—quiet. Hollow.
“This spot...” Claire breathes, staring at the water. “He brought me here after our first dinner.”
She closes her eyes.
“He told me—only at this time, when the tide’s right, you can see the darkness from the sound, the moonlight on the water, and the sand starts to sparkle... like a bed of diamonds.”
Sara swallows hard. “I wish I’d seen that.”
Claire doesn’t hear her. She’s somewhere else.
“He told me that he wanted a love like the tide and the sand,” Claire murmurs. “The tide makes the sand more beautiful when it rises. But when it recedes... it takes away everything that doesn’t belong.”
Her voice shakes. “And I didn’t belong.”
Sara’s eyes are wet now. “He’s a rare kind of man,” she says.
Claire nods. “I know. And I walked away. I let him go.”
The pain splits through her like glass.
“I hadperfectin the palm of my hand, and I let it slip like it was nothing.”
She turns for one last look at the water, at the dock, at the home that once held her heart.
“I don’t even know who I am without him,” Claire whispers.
Sara doesn’t scold her. Doesn’t say what she should. She just nods. “Until next time,” she whispers as they climb into the car.
As they pull away, Claire watches the house vanish in the rearview—piece by piece, until it’s just a blur in the distance.
A place she used to know.
A man she used to love.
A version of herself she’ll never get back.
56
Resentment
Threehoursintothesix-hour drive back to Duluth, the car is thick with silence and stale air. Each mile marker feels like a slap to the face. Claire’s jaw is tight. Her grip on the armrest hasn’t loosened since they left the island. The anger—jealousy, really—is starting to boil. Finally, she glances sideways and snaps, “I don’t see how it was fair.”
Sara doesn’t even blink. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“How was it fair that you got to see him in Atlanta and I didn’t?”
Sara exhales, slow and hard. “Probably because it was my catering company hired for the event. Him being there? That was a coincidence.”
“Was it?” Claire presses, eyes narrowing. “Or was it planned? I remember how you used to flirt with him.”
Sara’s head jerks toward her, fury rising. “Claire Grace, you’re being absolutely ridiculous. I hadn’t talked to him since the island. You know that.”
