Mel was about to say, So what? But then she finally saw something familiar in Joanna’s eyes, a flash of determination, and she realized that although it seemed that her old friend had changed in some way, fundamentally she hadn’t changed at all. Joanna Rafferty had always found it impossible to walk past anything lost and vulnerable, maybe because she had felt that way herself. Abandoned animals, kids at school who were bullied, Joanna had taken them all under her wing. And sometimes that had turned out okay, and sometimes it hadn’t.

And now she’d taken in Ashley. And there was only one way that was going to turn out.

“What’s going to happen when the press find out?”

“I don’t know,” Joanna said. “Are you going to tell them?”

“Ouch.” Mel was affronted. “No, of course I’m not going to tell them. But they’re going to find out eventually. They’re all wondering where you’ve gone. It won’t take them long to track you here.”

“You’re probably right. And you should leave now. I’m sure you’re busy.” Joanna walked back through the beach house to the front door, leaving Mel with no choice but to follow.

She was virtually being ejected, and she still didn’t really have any answers as to why Joanna had ended their friendship so abruptly.

“Joanna, I don’t have to leave. I’m not going to—”

“Thanks for visiting, and for bringing the basket. I appreciate it.”

And without exactly knowing how it had happened, Mel found herself standing in front of a closed door. What had she expected? That they’d put the past behind them and pick up where they’d left off? That Joanna would meet Mel’s emotional honesty with a few confessions of her own?

Neither of those things had happened. She hadn’t explained, and she hadn’t apologized.

She’d thought that seeing Joanna would make her feel better, but it hadn’t made her feel better at all.

It had made her want to bawl her eyes out.

11

Joanna

Joanna paced the kitchen and then poured herself a glass of water.

What had she been thinking?

What was the point of having gone to all this trouble to disappear for a while, only to open the door to someone who was the heart and soul of Silver Point? No doubt it would take all of five minutes for the locals to discover that Joanna was giving houseroom to the “unknown” woman who had been in Cliff’s car. She might as well have called the press herself and declared open house.

But she’d been taken by surprise.