“I saw you across the dock, but was waiting my turn to say hello.” He motioned to a bench at the dock’s edge, and we moved toward it, away from the stereo. We sat and he faced me. “I had that picture of your mother blown up. I was hoping I could see the other faces … but I can’t.” He pulled a photocopied paper out of his pocket and held it up to a lantern. “Can you see it?”

“Wow.”

He sighed and stared at me. I looked at him again, and I was stunned with the need to touch his face. I had to turn away in order to keep my hands at my side. Twenty-five years—I could not and would not allow myself to become one of those women who escaped that far into the past to fix her future.

A figure appeared before us, and I looked up to see a woman. She was tall, her brown curls flung around her face and head with the breeze. Her smile was closed but wide. “Hey, Hutch, Drew and I are gonna take Ashley home. She doesn’t feel well; I think she ate too much shrimp. I warned her … .”

Hutch stood and put his arm over her shoulder. “Becky, I want you to meet an old friend. This is Ellie Eddington. Ellie, this is Drew’s wife, Becky.”

I stood. “Hi,” I said, and held out my hand. “I’m Ellie Calvin.”

“Calvin, that’s right,” Hutch said. “Ellie Calvin.”

“I’ve heard about you from Hutch and Drew also. You all were the very best of friends in college.”

“Yes, we were,” I said.

She nodded at Hutch. “We’ll just meet you at home.” She glanced at me. “Nice to finally meet you. See you around town, I’m sure.”

“Yes.”

Hutch and I sat again, and I smiled at him. “Best of friends?”

“We were. That’s true.”

“Yes, it is.” I looked out over the water. “I’m sorry, Hutch. I’m so sorry for anything I ever did that hurt or wounded us.” I looked directly at him. “I am sorry.”

“Thank you, Ellie. That was sweet, but unnecessary. I don’t hold any—”

“I know, but I’m sorry about the pain I caused us; that I caused me. I’m sorry I was that girl that would’ve lied and cheated in her confusion.”

“We were twenty years old, Ellie. We were all confused about everything all the time. We thought we knew it all, but we didn’t, did we?”

“No, we didn’t. And I think I knew less than most.” I tried to smile, but my lips shook with the effort.