His fingers moved slowly up and down her arm. “The past is useful if it teaches you something about how you should be living in the present. Other than that, it’s just the past.”

Emily thought about her sister. “I think I’ve been living my whole life governed by the past. I didn’t think about it and didn’t talk about it, but it was there in everything I did. Skylar said that to me once and she was right. If it hadn’t been for Lizzy, I probably would have stayed that way forever.”

“And now?”

“Children have a way of making you live in the present. She doesn’t see further than the next meal or the next activity.” But she knew it wasn’t just Lizzy who was responsible for the change in her. It was Ryan.

He turned his head to hers, the gleam in his eyes telling her he knew what she was thinking. “If you need a suggestion for what the next activity could be, just ask.”

Chapter Fourteen

Fourteen

She left before Ryan woke, tiptoeing out of his apartment as sunlight shimmered through the wall of glass.

The trail of clothes strewn around the room told the story of the night before, and she gathered them up, dressed swiftly and quietly closed the door behind her.

As she walked down the steps that led from his apartment, she wished she’d thought to bring something else to wear.

She was acutely conscious, not only of the dress that announced to the entire island where she’d spent the night, but of the small things. The slight whisker burns on the sensitive skin of her neck and the fact that her body ached in unusual places. And then there were the other things. Emotions she didn’t recognize. Feelings that were unfamiliar.

It was as if she’d gone to sleep as one person and woken as another.

She arrived to pick up Lizzy and was grateful that Lisa said nothing about the fact Emily was overdressed. Instead, she supplied a strong cup of coffee and proceeded to make small talk about her plans for the makeover of Summer Scoop.

On the drive home Lizzy talked nonstop about her sleepover, an evening apparently bursting with pizza and popcorn.

Emily parked outside the cottage and stared at Shell Bay.

Had Ryan woken up?

Maybe she should have left a note, but what would she have said?

Thanks for the best sex of my life.

“Can we dig in the sand?” Lizzy sounded hopeful, and Emily turned to look at her, wondering why everything felt different.

“Yes. Let’s do it. Right now.” Before this new version of herself vanished. Before she went back to being the person she’d been the day before.