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His eyes s, hot indown my back

"Welcome to Cedar Cove"

CHAPTER TWO

I pushSoon, the ens of life: srasses and set back fro on blocks in soe over the wide, salt-hway, into town

Even after all these years, notlike I’ve stepped back in tirandpa would buythe biggest chocolate-chip short stack I’ve ever seen Jih crowd, and past that, the harbor, filled with the clashingboats and shiny new cruisers

Cedar Cove was always a sleepy kind of resort town--too frayed around the edges to attract the big tourist bucks--but it hasn’t been entirely untouched by new development As I drive on, I see there’s a slick new strip mall with a pizza place, and a coffee shop, and stretch of new beachfront condos lined up where an old bait and tackle shack used to stand

At least I won’t go into caffeine withdrawl this weekend

At the fork in the road, I turn off down Sandpiper Lane The dusty road winds along the shore, lined ild roseolden sands lying just beyond the brush After a reen mailbox, rusty on the side of the road, and turn into the familiar driveway

The house sits, baking and quiet in the afternoon sun Craftsles, now faded to a pale grey The white tri, but the front yawn is neatly tended, with lush grass and roses twisting up around the s

I put the Caet out of the car

My muscles are cra up at the old house Co back, I feel a fresh rush of eer of a sign on the side of the highway This is a house, a ho, and laughter, and love, and pain There’s the place where ould play in the sprinklers There’s the tree I would cli inside

There’s the hidden spot E, hands slipping up under my camisole to tease and caress across my bare skin…