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Thank goodness for Beth Without her, she would have driven herself to the airport and she was in no condition to do that She vaguely re with the airline to let her have a seat on the plane It didn’t happen, though, and Eh She had broken all records for speed getting ho at the front door, afraid to go in? Because if you go in, then it’s real Instead of opening the door, she dropped to the steps, needing just another moment When the door opened behind her, she looked over in surprise as Boston lowered himself to the step beside her She laid her head on his shoulder and murmured, "It’s true, isn’t it?"
He let out a breath that sounded one, Em"
"What happened? Dad said that she drowned How is that possible? Robyn could swi a new break with some of her friends From e’ve been told, the surf was pretty brutal and she wiped out over so hit to her head and they think she was too disoriented to free herself"
Eainst hers that he was crying She turned and put her ar shoulders They stayed that way until their father found them sometime later
"Emmie, Boston, co at the strongest man she had ever known He was pale, his nor taken on a sallow cast He ruffled her hair as he usually did, but the gesture wason fued hi, "Where is Moive her soot the call Maybe you could go up and check on her She’s cal at the walls I don’t knohat to do, where to start Your uncle is handling the arrangeo see Robyn I don’t know if yourmore sober than she had ever seen hi room while Emma walked with a heavy heart toward her parents’ room
As her father had indicated, her , she appeared to be staring at the wall Eave her a blank look, leading her to wonder if perhaps she had been overlassy look seemed to leave as her mother said, "I believe I knoho you are, honey You know about your sister"
Eoing," herabout the trip I know all you kids are great swimmers; your father and Iin the water But I was nervous about Robyn surfing somewhere new She knew the waters here like the back of her hand She got it in her head that she wanted to start training so her to enter the Wave Masters tournament She felt like she needed more experience before the competition"
Emma pulled back the bed covers and crawled in next to her mother while she continued to talk They wrapped their arms around each other and the tears ca if there would ever be a tihter The sorrow hung heavily over them like a black cloud
Chapter Twenty-three
At nine the nextto Emma’s house Despite his objections, Mark and Ava had insisted on accoht to Florida and to the hotel afterward It was a little difficult to throw a man off his own plane, so he had been forced to settle for company that he hadn’t really wanted It was late by the time they landed in Pensacola and he had been reluctant to drop in on E Instead, Mark had ushered the car at the airport and then to a local beachfront resort Apparently, Ava and Mark had decided between them that Brant needed soood kick in the ass for the way he had fucked up his life so completely He was pretty sure that Emma would be happy to provide hiain after the way he had treated her
He still couldn’t believe what had happened Had there ever been a worse time to completely lose it with so that she had suffered such a tragic loss, but it didn’t excuse hi but take her cues froht he had been out of town, and their conversations almost always had so in on things at the office In fact, their evening talks hadn’t related to business at all, and they both knew it
He had called Alexia froinning He had told her that he loved Eements for so for letting things get as far as they had True, they hadn’t had sex or anything approaching a physical relationship, but he had let things coast between thes for E this whole mess the minute he had allowed Alexia to stay with him He had no idea if Alexia planned to return to Carter, but hoped she would give herself time to find out who she was and what she really wanted without aher decisions
He picked up the keys that Mark had dropped off a few ht it would be wise to have a car in case E What the other ht she would kick Brant out on sight
Brant had to s area and found the rental car Mark had just said that it was a silver sedan with his name on it He hadn’t questioned how that was possible until he saw the silver Mercedes sitting in the first parking space with a sign across the windshield that said BRANT STONE Leave it to Mark to rent a Mercedes Luckily, the hotel was also on Santa Rosa Island where E a s, he was on his way The drive took less than five minutes No doubt Mark had planned it that way