trailing down her cheek.
He remembered the last time he’d seen her cry. He thought they were happy tears, but they’d been tears of goodbye.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“To see me in heaven I’d have to be dead and I’m very much alive, which means you’re very much alive.” He sounded like a dork, but finding the right words, any intelligent words, at this point was a challenge.
He was on the ferry headed back home. With Julie.
A scene that had filled his dreams more than once in the years after she’d left.
Shifting into police mode he asked, “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I fell.”
“I gathered as much.”
She tipped her head slightly, a habit he’d found endearing years ago.
“Why are you on the ferry?” she asked.
“Coming home from seeing my dad in the hospital. Why are you on the ferry?”
“Mom needs help.”
Short sentences seemed to be all she could utter. He guessed the trauma still buzzed in her system.
“Huh, news to me,” he said. “I saw her yesterday and she looked fine.”
“Housecleaning.”
Now he knew she was half in shock. Edith Burns kept a tidy house, was the most organized person Morgan knew and baked a mean pecan-chocolate pie.
“Housecleaning?” he prodded.
She gave him a quick nod, looking like a little girl.
Don’t do it, Morgan. Don’t get sucked in.
“Did she send you to get me?” she asked.
She was up to seven-word sentences. That had to be a good thing, right?
“No, she didn’t send me. Take your hat off,” he said, changing the subject. He didn’t like seeing her like this, frightened and disoriented.
“What? Why?” she asked.
“I need to check for a head wound.”
She absently slipped the knit cap from her head and golden strands of sunlight fell across her shoulders. Clenching his jaw, he ran his hand gently across her scalp looking for a contusion. He struggled to ignore the feel of the soft-spun gold against his fingertips.
“I didn’t hit my head. I don’t think,” she said.
He removed his hands and leaned back on his heels. “Nope, doesn’t look like it. You wanna tell me what got you so spooked?”
“I—” her breath caught. “I was…” Her voice trailed off and she clasped her hands in her lap, he guessed to keep them from trembling.
Morgan touched her shoulder once again, hoping to ground her. “Come on.”
Gripping her upper arm, he coaxed her up. He’d forgotten how perfectly matched they were with her five-foot-eight-inch height to Morgan’s six foot two. She’d been teased in grade school for being a giant, but the teasing stopped when she turned into a beautiful teenage girl.
His girl.
“I can’t believe I tripped,” she said, avoiding his gaze.
He could. She was terrified, and eventually she was going to tell him why. But not now. Now he had to help her calm down.
Cupping her elbow, he guided her to his truck.
“I’m such a klutz,” she offered.
She was anything but a klutz. She’d been a star athlete at Greenwood High, center on the basketball team, track star, and she had looked breathtaking in a prom dress.
This was bad, very bad. He needed to take her to her mom’s and get as far away as possible from this woman. And his past.
He opened the truck door. She took off her backpack and climbed into the front seat. It suddenly hit him how surreal this was. Running into Julie on the ferry? Rescuing her?
Morgan glanced over his shoulder to see if the guy who’d brought her change was anywhere in the vicinity. A Good Samaritan? Perhaps. Yet the guy looked as if he’d been caught stealing when Morgan noticed him.
Morgan slid behind the wheel of his truck and locked the doors. They couldn’t dock fast enough. At least when he was driving he’d have to concentrate on the dark roads leading to Port Whisper. But sitting here on the ferry…he dreaded the awkward conversation.
“How have you been?” she asked.
“Good. You?” He didn’t look at her, fearing the resentment would rise up this throat against his will.
“Okay, I guess.”
Just okay? She’d fled Port Whisper, ran away from Morgan to save the world. She’d sacrificed true love and she was just okay?
Knock it off.
“I work with street kids,” she offered.
“Sounds like a worthy endeavor.”
“It is. It’s…fulfilling.”
Unlike staying in her hometown, marrying Morgan and raising a family.
Ancient history.
He thought he’d moved on. He’d been engaged once, thought he’d found love again. But Renee couldn’t turn down an offer to teach in the Midwest, and Morgan wouldn’t abandon his dad.
Sure, he’d recovered from Renee’s heartbreak, occasionally dating Anna, another hometown girl.
But she wasn’t Julie.
Unbelievable. Why did they have to be on the same boat?
“You said your dad was in the hospital,” Julie said. “What’s wrong?”
“Cancer.”
“I’m sorry.” She leaned back against the headrest and sighed.
Seconds stretched like hours between them. Fine. Silence was better than talking about their past.
Her cell vibrated and she pulled it out. “Hey, Mom. Yeah… okay. You’ll never believe who I ran into on the ferry. Morgan Wright.” She glanced at him and smiled.
He ripped his gaze from hers and focused on the Camry in front of them. It was dangerous to look too long at that gentle smile, the whir of emotions building in his chest.
“I don’t know, hang on.” She glanced
