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there.
    “ And
then the guy fell on me and pinned me to the ground, but Jeremy
couldn’t figure out how to get me up,” Lydia said, laughing.
    “ That sounds more like the Jeremy I know.”
    Lydia
hesitated, wanting so badly to share more with Krysta. Why the pause?
This was her best friend. Of course she should confess all. Of
course she should talk about Jeremy and her hopes and concerns. Of course she should be able to share.
    So
why the reluctance?
    “ I’m
not judging,” Krysta added, as if reading Lydia’s mind. “If he
makes you happy…”
    “ He
does.”
    Big
smile. “Then that’s all that matters.” Krysta stopped and
stared straight ahead, her eyes scanning the woods ahead of them,
behind which Lydia knew the ocean lay, in constant motion, waiting
for nothing and no one. Content to just be.
    “ What?”
Krysta’s silence unnerved her.
    Pulling
her eyes off the horizon, Krysta turned to Lydia, expression
unreadable, though wistful. “You have two men you’ve fallen for
recently. That’s more than most of us get in a year.” She
frowned, then counted openly on her fingers. “Three years.”
    Ouch.
“You’ll find someone soon.” But it won’t be Caleb ,
Lydia thought with a heaping dose of guilt. She loved the hell out of
her little brother, but there was no way he’d even consider dating
Krysta. Too besotted with one of the Stillman girls, Caleb lived for
his cooking and for her.
    “ Do
you know how hard it is to want someone who doesn’t even realize
you’re there?” Krysta’s eyes filled with pain.
    Lydia
slung one arm around her shoulders and hid her own ache, thinking of
Mike. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
    Jeremy’s
voice made her jump slightly as he said, “Hi,” gently from behind
her, an arm slung over her shoulders as her heart raced.
    “ Great
timing,” Krysta said to him, making him look at the two women and
then frown slightly, edging away from Lydia.
    “ Should
I leave? Did I interrupt?” His face was calm and relaxed, a far cry
from what Lydia had expected.
    “ No.
Stay.” She and Krysta shared a look that Lydia assumed meant they’d
talk later. “Besides, Mom asked us to help her with a project.”
    “ What’s
that?” he asked.
    “ Knitting.”
In Iceland he’d made an unceremonious attempt to get to know Lydia
via unconventional methods that included crashing a knitting store.
The two giggled and Krysta waved them off as Lydia’s heart
struggled to find its beat.

    Mike
stood on the water’s edge in one of the many inlets that dotted the
campground’s shoreline. The
vacation that wasn’t. Whatever Mike had imagined this month would
be like, he hadn’t factored in just how much of his old life needed
to be unwound and required his attention. Joanie had stayed on as
executive assistant to the interim CEO, and part of her job was
working with Mike to tie up loose ends related to his position at
Bournham Industries. From contracts that needed to be invalidated, to
signatures on forms that released him from responsibility or
liability for processes, all the way down to which new email address
he wanted his old email to be forwarded to, Joanie’s daily missives
in the form of email, texts and occasional voicemails were a brutal
reminder that just because he had made a decision to snap his life in
two and go off into a new future didn’t mean that the stressors of
his old life weren’t still around.
    In
spite of all that, he found himself slowly, almost reluctantly,
relaxing. It was hard not to, here at Lydia’s parents’
campground.
    What
were trivial matters to him in his old life took on great importance
here. He had chatted with Sandy every day he’d been at the
campground. They’d spoken at the general store/office, or in the
game room, or at the playground—pretty much everywhere on the
grounds. The topic didn’t seem to matter. They could converse about
the cherry tomatoes and their sweetness, or point to small children
playing and frolicking, and