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“Julia, I want you and Ben to coet a place on the beach We’ll make a fresh start, we’ll try for real”

His words spun a web around her, a cocoon of wishful thinking, daydreams and fairy tales Her heart leaped with the sudden painful force hich she wanted that house and life on a beach with Jesse

A fresh start

Another fresh start

How many more could she take?

How many more times could she move Ben?

How many more men could she follow into the unknown?

She blinked Shook her head as if to force those negative questions from her mind, but they took root and spread She didn’t want to leave She wanted the life she was building here

And he was running from the life he’d built here

“You’re ht, Jesse,” she finally ed to say

“What do you mean?”

“She ran fifteen years ago So did you You ran into the ar now”

Jesse sighed as if weary “I’ a choice—a choice for a better life”

“What’s better than what you’re building here?”

He looked at her aghast “You were there tonight, Julia You sahat this town thinks of me”

“I saw one guy with a big otten in no tiuy stand up and shake your hand, boasting to his friends about the work you did I saw Nell and her boyfriend talk to you I see your niece and your sister and Mac” She sed “I see a life here that I want”

“What are you saying?” he asked

“I’ain I’ of myself and Ben For once”

His jaw turned to stone and his eyes to glass “So that’s it? It’s over?”