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she
swallowed. “I was working for a city magazine in Atlanta.”
    “ Why’d you come back?”
    She thought about saying that
she’d gotten sick of the city life and homesick for the bay, but
she didn’t.
    “ I was engaged and it didn’t
work out,” she said. It was the first time she had said the words
out loud, and it wasn’t as awful as she thought it would be. “I
just didn’t want to stay after that.”
    Neil reached over the table and
covered her hand with his. “I’m sorry,” he said.
    If she wasn’t careful, she was
going to start blubbering right there at the table. She was still
ultra sensitive about what had happened.
    “ Thanks,” she said. Their
food arrived then and Cathy was glad to stop talking about her sorry
life.
    Instead, they talked about high
school and what had happened to everyone they knew. “I can tell you
what happened to Lindy,” Neil said.
    “ Lindy? You don’t mean Lindy
McAlister do you?”
    Neil grinned at her. “I sure
do. We got back together a few months ago. They say you can’t go
home again, but I’ve managed it and got my old girlfriend back,
too.”
    “ That’s wonderful, Neil,”
Cathy said. “You seem pretty happy about it.”
    “ Yep.”
    Cathy knew what had happened to a
lot of people from Facebook, where you never had to be out of touch
or wonder about anyone. It was right there in daily posts.
    “ I don’t do Facebook,” Neil
said with a laugh. “My gallery tried to get me into it to promote
my painting, but I refused.”
    They talked some more about high
school, including one math teacher, Mr. Edison, who was quite a
character with his bow ties and pencil-thin mustache. By the time the
meal was over, Cathy had laughed many times.
    As Neil walked Cathy back to her
car, he said, “Would you like some help with your painting?”
    “ Well, I can’t really afford
to pay anyone to paint. That’s why I’m doing it myself.”
    “ I didn’t mean for you to pay
me,” Neil said pretending indignation. “Have you ever painted
before?”
    “ I painted my bedroom when I
was a teenager,” she said.
    “ I’ll bet it was lavender,
right?”
    “ How’d you know?” she said
laughing.
    “ Us painters know a lot,” he
said. “But seriously, I was thinking you might need some help, at
least getting started. I don’t mind doing that.”
    “ Could you come over tomorrow?”
Cathy asked.
    “ I’m finishing a job in the
morning, but I could come in the afternoon.”
    “ Okay,” she said. “I won’t
attempt anything until you get there.”
    Neil opened her car door and
waved goodbye. She watched him go back into the paint store before
she turned onto the highway and headed to the cottage. When she got
there, she walked out on the pier before she unpacked her car. She
sat for a while, hanging her feet over the edge, looking at the vast
blue water. She and Aaron had talked several times about making a
trip down here, but they never did, and now she was happy about that.
His ghost was nowhere to be seen in her bay town.

Chapter
Eight
    Cathy heard Neil pull up to the
cottage a few minutes after one the next afternoon. She watched him
as he got out of his white truck and walk up her steps. He had been a
cute boy in high school and he had turned into a handsome man.
    “ These are some good colors,”
Neil said as he looked at her paint cans.
    “ They’re from the Seaside
series,” Cathy said. “I want the place to reflect its
surroundings.”
    “ Which room do you want to do
first?”
    “ I was thinking the living room
since that’s where I spend most of my time.”
    Neil looked around. “These
slatted walls are going to be a little more work than sheetrock. You
can roll ‘em, but them you’ll have to go over each groove where
the slats meet with a brush.”
    She and Neil pulled the furniture
away from the walls into the center of the room. He placed a drop
cloth on the floor along the bottom edge of the wall.
    “ I’m going to show you how