Blythe had laughed. “Hey, I love that. I love my life.”

“What about falling in love with a guy?” That year, Natalie had been dating a foreign student named Diesel, and she was completely smitten by his clean-cut, chiseled-jaw looks and his mad skills in the bedroom. She’d been convinced that they would marry and have kids and live some undefined fantasy life abroad. Being in love was so heady and addictive that she couldn’t believe her mother managed to do without it.

“Like in a chick lit novel?” Mom grinned. “Been there. Done that. Read the book. And then moved on.” She must have noticed something in Natalie’s expression, because she said, “Listen, I’m in love with my life, my business, my father and May, and my daughter. I have everything I need right here.”

Natalie remembered thinking about that feeling of being in a man’s arms, the intimacy, the orgasms … “People always ask me why you’re single,” she’d said. “‘Your mom’s so gorgeous. Why hasn’t some guy swept her away?’ I hear it all the time.”

“And what do you tell them?”

“That you don’t want to be swept anywhere.”

“Ha. I trained you well.”

“Seriously, Mom. Were you so snakebit by Dean that you never want another relationship?”

Blythe had waved away the question. “Honestly, I didn’t even like him that much. I was too young to know my own heart—about the same age as you are now.”

“You’re not too young now,” Natalie had pointed out. “And you’re always pushing me to fall in love. Why me and not you?”

“We’re very different, you and I,” her mom had said. “Your heart was made for love.”

“And yours wasn’t?”

The frustrating conversation had repeated itself in many forms through the years. When Rick had come along, Blythe had been thrilled for Natalie.

Natalie had brought him home to meet her mother, showing him off like a prize tuna from the fishing docks.

“He’s wonderful,” Blythe had declared. “A total keeper.”

Natalie had tugged her aside and confessed her doubts about Rick. “He is wonderful, Mom. But I’m just not sure …”

“That’s because your father has been totally unavailable to you all your life. Now you’ve found a man who is available, and it probably feels weird to you. I hope you can learn to trust that he’ll be there for you.”

Dean must have done a number on you, Natalie thought now, scanning the marina as she waited for Trevor. Maybe her mother was onto something. Maybe Dean had conditioned them both to be suspicious of men who made themselves available.

She shivered now, pulling her light sweater more snugly around her. Aw, Mom. I hope you were as happy and fulfilled as you said you were, she thought. And why didn’t you level with me about Dean?