“How do you see yourself in it now?”

“With different pieces scattered over the whole, and connections I can’t turn away from. And I’m afraid I’ll never get back what I had.” Eyes desolate, she turned to him. “She lost her family because of me, faced the shame and fear of being alone. And it was because of me she married a man she didn’t love.” Shannon brushed at the tears with the back of her hand. “I know she did love him in time. A child knows that about her parents—you can feel it in the air, the same way you can feel an argument that adults think they’re hiding from you. But she never forgot Tom Concannon, never closed him out of her heart, or forgot how she felt when she walked to these cliffs in the rain and saw him.”

“And you wish she had.”

“Yes, I wish she had. And I hate myself for wishing it. Because when I wish it I know I’m not thinking of her, or of my father. I’m thinking of me.”

“You’re so hard on yourself, Shannon. It hurts me to see it.”

“No, I’m not. You have no idea the easy, the close-to-perfect life I had.” She looked out to sea again, her hair streaming back from her face. “Parents who indulged me in nearly everything. Who trusted me, respected me every bit as much as they loved me. They wanted me to have the best and saw that I got it. Good homes in good neighborhoods, good schools. I never wanted for anything, emotionally or materially. They gave me a solid foundation and let me make my own choices on how to use it. Now I’m angry because there’s a fault under the foundation. And the anger’s like turning my back on everything they did for me.”

“That’s nonsense, and it’s time you stopped it.” Firm, he took her shoulders. “Was it anger that made you come here to where it began, knowing what it would cost you to face it? You know he died here, yet you came to face that, too, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It hurts.”

“I know, darling.” He gathered her close. “I know it does. The heart has to break a little to make room.”

“I want to understand.” It was so comforting to rest her head on his shoulder. The tears didn’t burn then, and the pang in her heart lessened. “It would be easier to accept when I understand why they all made the choices they made.”

“I think you understand more than you know.” He turned so that they faced the sea again, the crashing and endless symphony of wave against rock. “It’s beautiful here. On the edge of the world.” He kissed her hair. “One day you’ll bring your paints and draw what you see, what you feel.”

“I don’t know if I could. So many ghosts.”

“You drew the stones. There’s no lack of ghosts there, and they’re as close to you as these.”