Read Shades of Blue for Free Online Page B

surroundings, questions cut at her, toying with her, taunting her. What if she’d never … What if they hadn’t … How would it be today if …
    She stopped at a light and something caught her eye. She turned and for a few seconds her breath caught in her throat. The stranger beside her was in a Dodge Ram pickup, and in that moment he looked like … well, he looked like him . Like a face from the past that she could never quite bring herself to forget. The way he might look now at twenty-eight. The same blond hair and rugged face, the same profile.
    Crazy , she told herself. You’re seeing things. Ghosts from a time long past . She blinked away his memory and focused her eyes straight ahead. She’d never get through the evening if she didn’t find a way to stay here in the moment. Her soul hurt from so much thinking, so she leaned back against her headrest. Of all the days to see someone who looked so much like him. A sigh rattled around in the basement of her heart before slipping through her teeth.
    She reached the crest of the bridge and gazed out at the deep blue Atlantic. At certain times of the year and from certain stretches of beach, a person could watch both the sunrise and the sunset from the island that made up Holden Beach. She turned right on Ocean Boulevard and savored the sun on her face, her dark hair whipping against her oversized sunglasses.
    A few hundred homes made up the beach area, most of them double-wides set in a few blocks from the shore, condominiums with ocean views, and the handful of million-dollar houses set right on the water. Emma never drove home without reminding herself how good she had it, how fortunate she was to have a beach house on Dolphin Street, a block from the sand.
    She could still hear her grandmother’s voice, calling her a week before her death. “I haven’t been there for you the way I should’ve,” her words were scratchy and stuck together. “It’s time I made up for it.”
    The beach house was her way of making up.
    Emma pulled into her driveway and surveyed the place. It was on stilts, faded white and gray with wood siding weathered by the sea air — the bleached-out look of most homes along the island. On either side of the front porch was a set of stairs that shot out like another pair of angled stilts. Emma put the car’s top up and shut the door. At a quick glance, her house looked sort of like an oversized sand crab, its legs jutting down at differing angles, sitting on a grassy section of sand that doubled as her front yard. The house was built in the late sixties, with a charm she wouldn’t have traded.
    It wasn’t beautiful the way some beach houses were, but Emma didn’t care. She was a minute from the shore and the eight miles of sand where she could run until her heart no longer hurt. She knew every neighbor up and down Dolphin Street — including a couple of retired teachers who spent most days reading on their front porches. One of them was always up for an evening conversation and a cup of coffee. But tonight Emma was glad they were already inside.
    Besides, she wouldn’t be alone. She had Riley, her red-brown lab mix, and two cats — Oreo and Tiger. And she had a plan. She was a year away from earning her master’s degree in education. After that she’d see about getting her administrative credential. Maybe one day she’d move to Wilmington or Raleigh and be principal of an elementary school. She loved her beach house, but if she got out of Holden Beach, she wouldn’t see her past around every corner.
    She slid the long strap of her purse across her body and headed through the front door and into the living room.
    “Riley! Here boy.” Through the window over the kitchen sink she could see a sliver of the Atlantic, and at this hour the sun sparkled against the distant water, beckoning her.
    From down the hall came the sound of dog feet scratching against the worn hardwood, and Riley’s wagging tail smacking against the wall. He