“That sounds complicated.” Lucy pulled a tube of 136

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cherry ChapStick out of the pocket of her jeans and applied it liberally.

“Yeah, that’s the whole thing. And there’s stuff going on with his family, and with my family, and who knows if it can even work . . .” Julianne could feel her voice rising with each word.

“But you like him, right?” Lucy gave Julianne a knowing grin.

“Oh my God, Luce, he’s amazing. He’s beyond fantastic. He’s into architecture, so he’s kind of artistic. And he just totally gets what I love so much about my art.

And he’s funny and thoughtful and, oh man, so, so hot.” Julianne felt the corners of her mouth creeping up into a smile as she reached into her bag for her Nalgene and took a drink.

“Well then, that’s the important part.” Lucy was full-on smiling now. “If you’re meant for each other, all the pieces will come together somehow. That’s all. That’s just how it is. No worries.” She squeezed Julianne’s hand. Julianne smiled back at her, feeling relieved and thrilled that someone had finally given her the green light to like Remi. “Anyway, I should probably head out,” Lucy said, looking at her old-school oversize Swatch watch. “It’s free-smoothie-sample day at the Bean, and they need all the help they can get.” She hugged Julianne goodbye, grabbed some scrapbooking pages off the wall hooks, and headed back down the aisle 137

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before turning and calling back, “Hey, you should bring this mystery guy out with us sometime. Or, you know, at least bring yourself. Call me! ” Julianne decided to stop at home before heading back to the site, just to pick up her camera and her favorite paintbrushes. She preferred working with brushes that she already liked the feel of, plus she wanted her camera to document her progress on the mural for her portfolio. Julianne burst through the door of her house like a husband in a ’50s sitcom.

“Oh, honey, I’m hoooome!” She could hear Chloe and her father murmuring in another room, but neither of them called back to her. “Hey!” she called out again.

“I’m home!” Again, there was no response. Julianne wandered into the dining room and found Chloe and her dad sitting at opposite ends of their oval dining table, both looking like they’d just been through a natural disaster.

Chloe’s cheeks were tearstained, and Dad’s eyes looked pale and empty. They were both staring in the general direction of a pile of papers that had been tossed into the center of the table. Julianne hadn’t seen either of them look this lost since the doctors had told them that Mom’s cancer was malignant. Her throat started to close up at the memory. She walked around the table and placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder, careful not to muss the lace of her sister’s puff-sleeve shirt. “Hey,” she murmured. “What’s going on?” Chloe just shook her head.

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Finally, their father spoke. “Court papers, Jules.” Julianne felt all the blood drain from her body and she slumped against the arm of Chloe’s chair. “The Moores’

lawyer served us with papers today. They’re suing us over our property rights.”

“They can’t do that!” Julianne burst out. “I’m sure they can’t. They haven’t even been here two months.

Mom bought this house thirty years ago. The mortgage is paid off. They can’t do that. There’s no way.”

“Jules, I’m not sure we can do anything,” Chloe whispered. Julianne felt her heart plummet from her chest.

They couldn’t possibly have to leave the house where their parents were married, and where Julianne and Chloe were born. The house where their mom had died.

“No. Absolutely not,” Julianne said, rising to her feet.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This couldn’t be happening. “No, they can’t do this. This is ridiculous!”

“Girls, I am so sorry,” their father whispered. “I don’t know if there’s a case here or not, but, either way, we don’t have the money to fight it. I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.” Dad buried his head in his hands. Slowly, Chloe pushed her chair back from the table and went over to wrap her arms around her father.

“Daddy, it’ll be okay,” she whispered. “It’ll all be okay.”

Julianne felt like someone had poured gasoline down 139

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her throat and dropped in a match. Her entire body was twitching, burning. She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t just stand there and watch her family hurting.

She raced out of the house—not even bothering to shut the door behind her—and ran down to the beach. The wind off the ocean was cold and sharp, and the sand felt unstable under her feet. She ran all the way down the beach, her feet rolling under her with every step, until she reached the edge of the water. She thought, vaguely, that the Moores would probably try to have her arrested if they found her down here. Silently, she dared them to try it. Just go ahead, she thought. Julianne stood there until what was left of the day had slipped by and night had begun to roll down onto the beach. She stared out at the ocean, a mass of darkening ripples against the rising moonlight. The reflection of the moon was tossed off the waves, like someone had drizzled the water with liquid gold.

She sat down at the edge of the ocean as the night sky deepened, her feet tucked under her and her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Almost imperceptibly, she began to whisper. She couldn’t even hear the words forming. She felt ridiculous, but Julianne needed her mother right now, and the beach had always been their special place.

“Mom, please. I don’t know what to do. I can’t let them take us away from you. I don’t know what to do.” 140

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Fat tears started to slip down Julianne’s face and she knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t stop calling out to her mother. “Mom, I don’t know how to make it better. I don’t know how to keep us together without you here to show me. What do I do?” Julianne put her head in her hands and just sat there, listening to the tide pumping in and out like a heartbeat. She wasn’t expecting to hear from her mother, but breathing in and out in time to the pulse of the tides, she knew she wasn’t alone.

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Chapter Fourteen

!

Julianne snapped awake when the weight of a hand touched her shoulder. She looked up to find the tousled brown hair and concerned face of Remi Moore. Silently, Remi sat down next to Julianne.

Keeping her gaze on the ocean, she told him flatly, “I don’t want to see you right now.”

“So don’t look at me. But you shouldn’t be alone.

It’s almost midnight. You’ve obviously been crying.

You’re a total wreck. Someone should be here with you.” Concern poured out of every syllable Remi spoke.

“I came looking for you as soon as I heard about the papers.”

“I don’t need you trying to take care of me right now.” Julianne’s tone remained completely flat. She was 142

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shocked to hear her own voice sound so dull. “You’ve done enough already,” she finished.

“Julianne, I . . . I don’t even know what to say.” Remi’s voice was tinged with regret.

All of a sudden, Julianne’s voice came coursing back into her body. She turned to him. “I don’t want to hear how bad you feel, how sorry you are. I don’t want to hear any of it. I am just so tired of this. I’m done. I can’t walk around with all of this negativity and worry all of the time—it’s going to consume me. I can’t care anymore. I just can’t.”

The sand looked blue-gray, spilling out under the night sky. Julianne stared absently out at the ocean.

“I hate this.” Remi’s voice sounded like it was choking in his throat. “I . . . I hate this.”

“What?” Julianne finally turned her head toward him and stared at his profile.

“I hate this. I hate everything about this situation,” Remi repeated. He was tracing tiny circles in the sand.