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shouldn’t matter this much.”
    “Apparently it does,” Meri said softly.
    “I guess it does. I don’t regret my decision.” Shelly wiped her dripping nose. “When I look back, I still think it was the only choice I could have made. Jonathan should have understood that. He was so strong about it being all or nothing. We were both so immature.” Shelly took a drink of water. “What did he tell you?”
    Meredith tilted her head and gave Shelly a compassionate look. “Jonathan’s heart was broken. I don’t know if you ever really understood that. He loved you. He knew you well enough to know you wouldn’t change your mind. As he said, you were a brick wall, and you weren’t going to move.”
    Shelly closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “How can anyone know what love is at eighteen?”
    “Jonathan was pretty sure he knew,” Meredith said.
    Just then the phone rang. Meredith ignored it. On the third ring the answering machine picked it up in the kitchen. They could hear the caller’s voice. “Hey, it’s Byron. Just wanted you to know I’m running a little late. I’ll be over in twenty minutes to help you pack. Call me if you want me to bring some food.”
    Meredith sprang from her seat and grabbed the phone. “Hi, I’m here. Would you mind coming over a bit later?” Meri listened for a few minutes and then said, “Just a sec. I’m going to change phones.” She motioned to Shelly to hang up the extension in the kitchen as Meredith moved to the bedroom.
    Shelly hung up for her sister. She had done that dozens of times before. Meri liked her privacy when she was on the phone. Shelly guessed that was about the only thing the youngest of four sisters could demand that the others would respect.
    Returning to her spot on the couch, Shelly took another sip of water. She closed her eyes and heard her sister’s words once more. “
Jonathan was pretty sure he knew
.”
    Deep inside, a memory begged to be brought to the forefront of Shelly’s thoughts. Too weary to ward it off, she let the memory come.
    She was sixteen again, and she and Jonathan were sailing with his uncle off the San Juan Islands. The summer day had been clear and warm when they started, with white cloudsskittering overhead. By two o’clock a high, thin layer of gray clouds covered the sky. Jonathan’s uncle called them “doom and gloom” clouds. The wind kicked up as the boat moved back toward the harbor. The three sailors tacked their way furiously back and forth, trying to get the wind to cooperate with them rather than send them back to sea.
    Shelly secured herself and held tightly to the rope Jonathan’s uncle handed her. The water splashed over the side of the small craft, rising like a fountain and raining itself down on Shelly. She shivered but held the rope with all her strength. The thrill of the adventure ran all the way to her toes. She wasn’t a bit frightened. Ever since she had overcome her fear of heights by climbing up into Jonathan’s tree house, she had been drawn to daring escapades. When the carnival came to town, she was the one who wanted to ride the roller coaster one more time. This confrontation with nature made her skin tingle.
    Shelly distinctly remembered the moment Jonathan’s uncle said, “Now!” She let go of the rope, and the sail unfurled, catching the wind and turning the sailboat. All that power was harnessed and then unleashed. Shelly flashed her smile at Jonathan, and their eyes met.
    His light brown hair caught the wind, too, and was blown back, fully exposing his stormy, gray eyes and his ignited smile.
    In that moment, Jonathan transformed before Shelly’s eyes. She didn’t know what it was, but he looked different to her. Vastly different. And her heart responded to that change. Under those “gloom and doom” clouds, three weeks before their seventeenth birthdays, Michelle Annalee Graham realized for the first time that she was in love with Jonathan Charles Renfield.
    It took