The flight was so long she changed her mind thirty-seven times, but on the thirty-eighth she silenced the last of her doubts. This was the only choice she could make. She wanted Marissa, but knew Marissa had no idea what a basket case she had gone to bed with. It would take time, lots of time maybe, to fix that.

Tension kept her from sleeping and the in-flight movies weren’t diverting. There was little to do but close her eyes and relive every conversation she’d had with Marissa. She touched the square of blue silk from time to time and wondered what she might see in Marissa’s eyes the next time she looked into them.

U.S. Customs let her in the country and this time walking out of the airport, head held high, was exactly the right thing to do. The chilly winter air didn’t bother her. The transit system was familiar and she escaped to the suburbs. In no time she was giving a cab driver the address.

This was the right thing to do. In spite of all the other confusion and lack of certainty, she knew this was where she had to be if she was going to ever have a chance to find that place again with Marissa. She couldn’t build a future from the Kiwi bush or Ozzie outback.

The elevator whisked her upward and the confined space allowed her to realize she needed a bath. The humid marketplace in Papeete, followed by nearly twenty hours of recirculated air and the lack of sleep left her sinuses dry and eyes scratchy. The elevator door panels reflected back wild hair, a stained rugby shirt and crumpled shorts.

She stepped out into the thick carpet, and took advantage of a man keying in the code to get past the receptionist and into the main office.

“Hey! You can’t go in there!”

She sidestepped the startled man, who’d turned at the receptionist’s cry. Executives always had the big offices at the far end. Aware of the rising clamor behind her, she picked up her pace. She wasn’t watching herself make this journey down the long corridor, she was living it. She was grinning so deeply her jaw hurt. Alarmed glances from everyone she passed said she was acting like a crazy woman, and what better way to go these last few feet, headlong into whatever the future had in store?

She boldly strode past another scurrying assistant.

“You can’t go in there!”

“Yes I can,” Linda answered as she flung open the door.

For just a moment Linda had the supreme satisfaction of seeing the woman at the desk utterly flummoxed. The onyx eyes widened in shock. Quickly, however, a tiny smile followed but Linda would not let it frighten her again.

Her voice singsong and regardless of the other people obviously in a very important meeting with the president of Price Investments, Linda proclaimed, “Mom! I’m home!”

Chapter 7

“Look how tanned you are! You’d never know you were in a shipwreck—you look fantastic!” Ocky threw her long arms enthusiastically around Marissa. “Was your flight okay? Tell me everything.”