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“Good night.”
Then she turned and walked inside. I sat back on the cushions and stared across the endless ocean. When I was little, I used to watch the waves and imagine I could see all the way across to the foreign lands on the other side of the world. I’d imagine visiting all these exotic places one day and standing on their beaches staring back at the spot where I’d once stood. Now I wondered what was actually out there. Did it go on forever, or did it end somewhere? I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the breeze and hugged myself as tight as I could.
“Rory?”
I whirled around, nearly jumping out of my skin. Aaron was tiptoeing around the side of the house, looking up at the deck.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, leaping to my feet. “It’s three o’clock in the morning!”
“I know!” he said, looking up. “I couldn’t sleep. Did you find your sister?”
My heart thumped extra hard. He was so sweet, unable to sleep because of me. Such a good person. A person who didn’t deserve this. I felt a fresh wave of tears and shook my head at myself. Was everything going to make me cry from here on out?
“Yeah. She’s back,” I said simply.
His smile nearly broke my heart. “That’s great! Can I come up?”
Part of me wanted to say yes. Wanted to hang out with him and chat and feel that sort of comfortable, safe, uncomplicated feeling I had when I was around him. But I couldn’t just hang out. Not now. Not when I was feeling so raw.
“I’m really tired, actually,” I told him. “I think I’m just going to go to bed.”
Aaron had already made a move for the stairs and stopped in his tracks. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told him.
Hopefully, I thought.
“But thanks,” I added. “For coming to check on me.”
“Anytime,” he said with a smile. “That’s what friends are for.”
He lifted his hand in a wave, then turned and walked back toward the street. I watched him until he dipped out of sight, morosely wondering if I’d ever see him again. Wondering if by tomorrow Darcy would have forgotten who he was.
After a while, I walked down the steps and out onto the beach, sitting down in the cold, freshly smoothed sand. Dawn was rapidly approaching, and I wanted to watch the sun come up. It was something my mother, Darcy, and I used to do together when we were little, down in Ocean City. She’d wake us up when it was still dark out and cuddle me into my stroller, then carry Darcy down to the water while she pushed me ahead of them. I’d doze off on the way, but she’d always wake me just when the sky began to turn pink. Then we’d both crawl into her lap and nestle there as we watched the first light creep toward us over the water and up the beach. Watched the gift of a new day opening at our feet.
That’s what she’d always called it. A gift. I’d never realized how right she was until now.
Had my mother ever been to Juniper Landing? Had she ever watched this particular sunrise?
I took a deep breath and let it out. A tickle skittered down my spine as I felt Tristan approaching. His feet stepped up next to me in the sand.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked.
I shook my head and hugged my knees to my chest. “Not yet.”
He dropped down next to me, pulling his legs up to his chin. I listened to the rhythmic sound of his breathing and stared down at his leather bracelet, his hand pressed into the sand near my hip.
“Is he gone?” I asked after a while. “Steven Nell. Is he really gone?”
“Oh, he’s gone,” Tristan said, lifting his chin a bit as the first haze of pink appeared on the horizon.
“What about Olive?” I asked. “And the singer from the park?”
“They’ve…moved on,” Tristan said carefully.
“And the guy with the hat?” I asked.
“Him, too.” He didn’t even pause. He knew exactly who I was talking about.
