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Alex was sprawled out on one of them.
He hurried down the rough path leading to the rocks and skipped over them to reach her.
Don’t be dead, don’t be dead.
He pulled his phone to call 911.
He got to her and knelt down to check the woman’s pulse.
She screamed and sat up so abruptly, Devine fell back on his ass on one of the rocks.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
He was so relieved that he had interpreted the scene incorrectly that he didn’t answer. He just laughed, uncontrollably, for a few seconds in a spasm of relief, and then lapsed into an embarrassed silence, his chest heaving with all he was feeling at the moment.
As she stared at him with obvious concern he said, “I saw you lying sprawled on the rocks from the widow’s walk. I...I thought...” He couldn’t finish the statement, but he didn’t need to.
“Omigod, I’m so sorry,” said Alex. She reached out and gripped his hand. “I guess it looked...I was like...Jenny.”
He nodded and then looked off to the encroaching ocean. He closed his eyes and tried to will away that image of a dead Alex. It did not work.
“I come out here a few times a week and lay out on this flat rock before the tide comes in. It’s part of my therapy. I was going to bag it today what with the rain, but it stopped, so...”
“I didn’t know you were still in therapy.”
“It’s self-imposed. I learned a lot from others and now I practice it. Breathing exercises, meditation, using certain calming phrases, being in the moment, trying to knock as much cortisol out of my system as I can and replacing it with dopamine.” She ran her gaze over him. “You should try it; you look very stressed. I can teach you a few things.”
“Thanks, maybe I’ll take you up on that. But I have some questions first.”
“Okay? What?”
“Did you know your brother is negotiating to sell Jocelyn Point? And do you agree with that? And do you know whether your sister did and whether she approved of a potential sale?”
Alex now looked out to sea and didn’t answer for a long moment while Devine tensely watched her.
“Dak told me about it. I don’t know if Jenny wanted to sell or not. I don’t know if she even knew about it.”
“She didn’t talk about it when she came up here last?”
“No, she never mentioned it. She just wanted to talk about...if I had recalled anything from when I was attacked.”
“So, are you okay with him selling all this?”
“We haven’t really talked about how I feel. And I haven’t really thought about it.”
“Under the trust document you both have to agree for a sale to go through. When Jenny was alive she would have had to agree, too.”
She slowly turned to look at him. “You’re not suggesting...?”
“I have to look at every angle, Alex. Dak is negotiating to sell this place, like I said. So how is he doing that if you haven’t agreed to the deal?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to talk to him about it.”
He drew closer. “Alex, do you want to leave here?”
“You told me there’s a big world out there for me to capture.”
“I know I did, and I meant it. But you can travel to other places without selling this place. Without selling your home.”
