Mel looped her arms around her bent legs and rested her chin on her arms. “I missed this view—” She almost said, And I missed you, but maybe that was too much too soon. She had other more pressing things to say first.

“The view is almost the same from the Surf Café.”

“Not really. My view is full of people. Here, you have the ocean to yourself. Just you and the water and the wildlife.” As teenage girls they’d lain on the sand, simmering in a soup of teenage hormones, exchanging thoughts and experiences, their agile minds bloated with questions. What? Did he—? Would you ever—? Mel had spent the night planning how best to apologize, but now the moment was here she just plunged right in. “I owe you an apology. I didn’t know Nate was the one who ended the relationship. I only found out last night.” And had a sleepless night because of it.

“Ashley told you.”

“She told Eden, but I’m glad she did so don’t be angry. You must have wondered why I came up here yelling that first time.” She was mortified to remember it, and it was no good telling herself that she hadn’t had the facts. She should have considered other options. Taken a more balanced view, as Greg always did.

“I’m not blaming you for that, Mel.”

“I am. I need to fix myself. I’m a horrible person.”

“What?” Joanna turned to her, horrified. “Nate not telling you what happened doesn’t make you a horrible person.”

“But I should have thought there might be more to it. I should have asked myself more questions about why he would never talk about it. I’m forty. You’d think by now I would have learned to be a better human being.”

“You’re a wonderful human being, always have been.” Joanna brushed sand from her legs. “If you were perfect, I’d have to hate you.”

“Yeah, well, you have every right to do that.” She was not going to cry. She was not going to get all emotional. She was going to own her mistakes and try and learn from them.

Joanna reached across and touched her arm. “Mel, stop it. Stop beating yourself up when none of this is your fault. If there’s blame, then maybe it lies with me for not talking to you about it, and Nate for not telling you the truth. But he never talked about our relationship and frankly I liked that. I liked the fact that we had something he didn’t share with anyone else. It made it feel special.”

“I was so angry with him last night. When I found out the truth. Aren’t you angry with him?”

“For the fact that he ended our relationship? No. Was I upset? Yes, of course. Devastated.” Joanna paused. “But he did the right thing.”