Just The Way You Are Read Free Page B

sharp rocky bluffs, and as they turned south, the right side of the road fell away in a sheer drop to the blue-green ocean below.
    The sea was magnificent—tall, booming waves hitting the rocky shore, spraying a fine mist over the rocks and a few sea lions basking in the sunlight. The coastline wove in and out, the tides pushing and pulling at the beaches below with a relentless beat. She'd forgotten how overwhelming the ocean could be, consuming everything within its reach.
    It was all too familiar—and all too much. Tessa rolled up the window and leaned against the leather seat, closing her eyes against the view, steeling her heart against the memories, the hurt that went right down to her bones whenever she thought about Sam and Alli.
    God, how she'd once loved Sam Tucker! He'd been her best friend, her boyfriend, and now the last man she ever wanted to see again. And Alli … how could she look at her sister and not think of her betrayal? How could she face either of them?
    Sam and Alli were married now. They had a daughter together, a daughter who was eight years old. Tessa shook her head, unable to believe how much time had gone by. It seemed like only yesterday they had all been teenagers, young, restless, in love, with their lives stretched out before them. The future had been filled with possibilities; now there was only uncertainty and fear.
    Tessa's thoughts turned to her grandmother. She hoped and prayed that the news wasn't as bad as Mr. Beckett had implied. Perhaps by the time she arrived in Tucker's Landing her grandmother would be awake and smiling and telling them it was all right. "I can't die yet," she'd say, "because I'm not through living."
    It had been Grams's favorite expression, Tessa remembered fondly, words meant to reassure her that unlike her parents, who had died in a car accident, her grandmother wasn't going anywhere. Every night before bed, they would look out at the stars and her grandmother would point out two that appeared to be winking at them and tell Tessa to blow a kiss to her parents. Then Grams would tuck her into bed and say, "I can't die yet, honey. I haven't finished counting the stars, and don't you know, my darling girl, that you will never be alone, because there is always love, and love lives forever."
    But Grams was wrong. Love didn't always live forever. And there was a good chance Tessa would end up alone.
    "Miss MacGuire?" the chauffeur said over the intercom.
    Tessa opened her eyes, grateful to have her disturbing thoughts interrupted. "Yes?"
    "I'm not clear on the turnoff after
    First Street
    ."
    "Left on
    Bayberry Drive
    , a mile down the road to the end. The house is the last one on the edge of the bluff. It has a widow's walk."
    "A what?"
    "A long balcony that winds around the front and side of the house overlooking the ocean." The place where her grandmother had once paced incessantly, watching and waiting for her husband's boat to sail into the harbor. How scared she must have been that last time when his boat hadn't come back after the storm—maybe as scared as she must be now.
    "Do you want to go to your grandmother's house now or the hospital?" the chauffeur asked.
    Tessa hesitated. She was hours earlier than planned, having flown all night. It was only seven o'clock in the morning, too early to go to the hospital. She needed a few moments to pull herself together, to get her emotions in check so she wouldn't fall apart when she saw Grams—or Alli or Sam.
    "The house," she decided.
    Tessa pulled out a brush from her purse and ran it through her hair, taking peace in the reassuring movements. She could do this. She could go to the hospital, make sure that Phoebe was being well cared for. She could be cool, polite, and impersonal when she saw Sam and Alli again. She'd mastered those traits over the years and no one ever suspected anything was wrong—why should it be any different now?
    A tiny voice reminded her that there had been a time when she and Alli could