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PROLOGUE

Each , before the sun even rose,their boats for the day The sounds of theof heavy boots, the whooshing of ropes coiling, the bubbling of water as the engines roared to life They stocked their boats full of bait, loaded the ice roceries for those ere leaving for longer than a day Those boats would dock days later; then the men would drop off their catches, restock their supplies, and call home to check in with their loved ones At ho the sky for an unexpected storm until that first call ca, happy to hear fro started again until the next call

To so For enerations before, and several worked with their fa from as far north as Canada and as far south as California Rarely would someone from the East Coast come here to earn some summer money, but it happened, and their accents ht-knit community

Under the h the channel and by the Driftwood Inn with its crew standing starboard, waving They did this every time they went out, without fail, and would also do it when they returned, paying hoe to their boat’s namesake No one seemed to care if anyone waved back; they knew she would be in her room that faced the water or in the inn’s ballroom, alone The way she had been for the last fifteen years

The three-story ht out of the Luxury Ho Cape Harbor fro town The A-fraht to behold Back in the day, the locals considered the Driftwood Inn the gateway into town—still to this day many tourists yearned to stay there just to see the purple-and-pink nightly sunsets through thes, to feel the sun’s rays penetrate through the glass, and to stare at the majestic views of Mount Baker There wasn’t another hotel that could provide such a nificent perspective Others tried, but no one could replicate the essence of the inn, whichfor the community when the doors closed

Standing in the atticof her granddaughter’s ocean-blue-and-white bedroo that so boat went by She knew the boys meant well, but the pain she hid for most of the year crept back in As much as it saddened her to watch, to see the She always made sure she knew the schedule of the Austin Woods so she could keep track Even if none of her fa about those ere She glanced out to the rising sun and wondered what today would bring They were due for a stor hammered, and it was only a matter of time before Mother Nature turned her attention toward the West At this age, her heart couldn’t take much more

When the boat was out of sight, she rested her hand against the glass and dipped her head slightly She recited the fisherrandfather and had recited when she stood with her mother in this very hen the men in her family set sail Carly had sworn she would never marry a fisherman, and she had held fast until she had seen Skip Woods in a different light They had grown up together, always hanging out in the saed Their friendship quickly turned into love and e, and with the birth of their son, they became a family

The war coated her throat as she sipped A cough tickled her throat, and she did everything she could to push it away The last thing she wanted was to have a coughing fit that would buckle her legs out froe of the bed, placed her hands on her knees, closed her eyes, and focused on her breathing She had learned the technique from the doctor she saw in Seattle to calm the spasms in her chest She didn’t want her friend and housekeeper to feel the need to rush to her aid, when she kne to control her breathing—at least not yet Theh seemed to subside