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CLAIRE ARRIVED at the SeaTac Airport early in the afternoon, feeling very sements She’d even booked a car for herself Normally she would have used a car service, but she would have to drive back and forth to the hospital, then to the bakery Nicole ht need her to run errands Wheels of her own e suitcases off the baggage claied thee was long and the bags heavy She was breathing hard by the time she reached a bank of elevators she had to take down to the rental car place By the ti wool coat she’d shrugged on Sweat trickled down her back,her cashmere sweater stick to herShe waited in line, excited about being here, nervous and filled with resolve to do whatever it took to reconnect with her sisters They were being given a second chance She wasn’t going to blow it

The woed the two suitcases along as she approached

"Hi I have a reservation"

"Name?"

"Claire Keyes" Claire handed over her driver’s license and her platinum credit card

The woman studied the driver’s license "Do you have insurance or do you want coverage on the car?"

"I’ll take your coverage" It was easier than explaining that she didn’t own a car and had, in fact, never owned a car The only reason she had a driver’s license at all was because she’d insisted on lessons when she’d turned eighteen and had studied and practiced until she’d passed the test

"Any tickets or accidents?" the wo a ticket or an accident would require actual driving So Claire hadn’t done more than once or twice in the past ten years

There were a couple of forn, then the woman handed back the license and credit card

"Nuet you soer, if you want"

Claire blinked at her "Nuht The keys are inside"

"Oh, great I’ll pass on soer"

"Okay You need a map?"

"Yes, please"

Claire tucked the lass structure She sas of cars and nu as she went, she found nuht and stared at the silver Malibu

It had four doors and looked huge She sed Was she really going to drive? A question for later, she told herself First she had to get out of the parking lot

Challenge nue into the trunk There didn’t seem to be any way to open it No buttons, no knobs She pushed and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge Finally she gave up and s into the backseat Then she slid behind the wheel

It took her a couple of et the seat ed to get the key in the ignition and turned it The engine caught immediately Claire carefully adjusted her mirrors, then drew in a breath She was practically on her way

Next she turned to the GPS systereeted her in French

Claire stared at it What on earth?

She pushed a few buttons Yup, it was speaking French Okay, sure, she also spoke the language, but not well enough to deal with it while driving The potential to freak while on the road seee to the h Dutch and Japanese Finally she heard the pleasant fe into the night faded slightly

She continued reading the instruction card, then carefully punched in the address of the bakery She’d forgotten to ask Jesse for the naery, so the bakery seemed like the best place to start Finally, she braced herself to drive out of the space

Her chest was tight She ignored that, along with the prickling that started on her back and ht frantically Not now She could panic later, when she wasn’t about to drive

She closed her eyes and breathed, pictured her sister lying in a hospital bed, in desperate need of help That’s where she needed to be, she reminded herself With Nicole

The sense of panic faded a little She opened her eyes and began her journey

The parking structure seemed dark and closed Fortunately there weren’t any cars in the row in front of her, so she would have extra room to turn as she drove out

Slowly, carefully, she put the car in Drive It started to ht away She jammed her foot on the brake The whole car jerked She eased up on the brake and it ed to make it out of her space Fifteenstructure and onto the road that led out of the airport

"In five hundred feet, stay to the right I-5 is on the right"

The voice fro, as if it knew Claire was totally clueless about driving in general and where she was going in particular

"I-5 what?" Claire asked before she saw a sign for the I-5 freeway She shrieked "I can’t go on the freeway," she told the GPS "We need to go on regular streets"

There was a ding "Stay to the right"

"But I don’t want to"

She looked around frantically, but there didn’t seeo The road she was on just sort of eased into the freeway She couldn’t move to her left--there were tooreally, really fast

Claire clutched the steering wheel with both hands, her body stiff, her es of fiery crashes

"I can do this," she whispered to herself "I can do this"

She pressed a little harder on the accelerator, until she was going nearly forty-five That had to be fast enough, didn’t it? Who needed to go faster than that?

A big truck came up behind her and honked its horn She ju really, really close She was so busy trying not to be scared by the cars zipping around her that she forgot aboutuntil the GPS systeht? Do I want to go north?"

And then the road was turning and she was turning with it She desperately wanted to close her eyes, but knew that would be bad Fear made her sweat She really wanted to rip off her coat, but couldn’t Not and keep fro wheel so hard, her fingers ached