Chapters (39)
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Epilogue
- Author’s note
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
‘How did you find this beach?’ Anna asked, an hour or so later. They were sitting on a rock, sipping coffee from a flask that Robert had produced from the boat’s cabin. The full bucket was stowed away.
‘I didn’t. It was Cassie. She knew this coast like the back of her hand. She loved this place.’ Robert smiled, a lopsided gesture as he looked up to stare out over the waves. ‘We came here on one of our first proper dates. She borrowed her dad’s boat after school one day to bring me here – she could already handle it like a pro, even at fifteen. I’d sailed past this place myself since I was small, but I’d never noticed it enough to bother exploring. She was like that, though. Noticed everything. Interested in everything.’
Anna looked over at the boat they’d come in; at the name so proudly painted on its hull. ‘The Cassie’s Joy,’ she read, again. ‘This was your wife’s boat?’
Robert MacKenzie nodded. ‘I bought it as a wedding present. We couldn’t afford a house but I bought Cass a boat of her own,’ he shook his head as if in wonder at his youthful foolishness. ‘We were out in it every spare moment we had.’ His face took on an uncomfortable expression and he glanced at her. ‘Sorry.’
‘Sorry? For what?’
‘Here I am going on about my dead wife.’
‘I was the one who asked,’ Anna pointed out. ‘I’ve been trying to find a way to apologize to you, anyway, for bringing Cassie up the way I did when we first met. I didn’t know that you had lost her. I’d never have been so insensitive if I had.’
Robert shifted beside her, their shoulders brushing together. ‘It wasn’t insensitive. You didn’t know.’
‘Still,’ Anna said. ‘I’m sorry. And I would never stop you talking about Cassie, if you wanted to. Talk about her as much as you like.’
He gave a slight smile. ‘Be careful. That’s a big thing to offer.’
‘Is it?’
He looked out at the water again. ‘It’s a difficult thing to listen to, isn’t it, other people’s grief? People want to believe they can, but… usually they find it’s too much. Besides, Cassie’s been gone for five years. Most people around here think I should be over it by now. That I should have moved on.’