Rocky Point Reunion Read Online Free PDF Page A

harder every time she saw him.
    â€œPack a picnic, we’ll eat at the marina,” he countered.
    She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Deal. I provide fantastic picnics, as it happens.” A picnic could be equally romantic. Hadn’t they stolen away as teenagers, picnicking on Carlisle beach, or in some of the woods around town? Being with Zack had been romantic in the old days. Could she keep her perspective meeting him for one last picnic?
    â€œOne o’clock? And I’ll pay for the picnic—I invited you, after all.”
    â€œOkay, pick it up at one at the café. It’ll have your name on it.”
    He turned and headed down the stairs. Marcie closed the door and leaned against it. She felt as if she’d run a mile. Excitement built as she thought about another picnic with Zack. This one wouldn’t end in sweet kisses. Nor in the knowledge she’d see him again the next day and the day after. It would be a bittersweet lunch, memories of happier picnics crowding with the reality of the present. She sighed for what would never be repeated. It was just lunch, not a romantic tryst.
    Â 
    Zack turned into the driveway of his family home, hearing the bike slide a little in the back of the pickup truck. Jenny had been talking the entire trip from town, but he’d been only half listening. Tomorrow he’d have Marcie’s undivided attention. He wanted to make sure she listened to him and understood that he regretted the past more than he could say.
    Pulling in by the back door, he turned off the truck and gazed at the sea. The house sat on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic. It had been in the family for years. Currently his brother Joe and Jenny lived in it, but that would change when Joe married Gillian. He and Jenny were moving into the house Gillian inherited from her great-grandmother. She’d never had a place to call home, so Joe wanted her to have that house.
    â€œUncle Zack, can I call Sally Anne to tell her about the new dresses?” Jenny asked.
    He smiled and nodded, then watched his niece dash into the house to call her best friend. He was grateful for this time at home. Chasing after a dream, he’d neglected family and friends. The fame and fortune he’d garnered wasn’t as fulfilling as he’d thought it’d be. Traveling aroundEurope sounded glamorous—but the reality was it was racetracks he knew best, not capital cities. The telling moment, though, had been when Jacques had died.
    He still couldn’t believe his best friend for the past eight years was gone. He and Jacques had started out together on the team, bunked together until they earned enough in winnings to get their own rooms. Ate together when away from home. Shared parts of themselves no one else knew. They’d been closer than brothers. Zack had told him how often he thought about Marcie. Jacques had told him time and again to go back to see her. Zack never had. Now that Jacques wasn’t around to tell him again, Zack had finally come home.
    Shaking off the painful memory of his friend’s fiery crash, he got out of the truck and lifted Jenny’s bike from the back. Setting it near the back stoop, he glanced across the yard to the house next door. That’s where Joe and Jenny would be moving—to Gillian’s house—after the wedding. He looked at the family place. Maybe he could buy out Joe and put down roots.
    Or, maybe, he thought as he shut the truck tailgate, life would be too uncomfortable in Rocky Point if Marcie didn’t forgive him. Maybe he’d better make a fallback plan.
    But he didn’t want to. He wanted the future they’d once talked about. He’d learned from the past decade that going his own way had its rewards, but also drawbacks. Yet he was torn. The racing circuit was what he knew best. His life was exciting and predictable. For a moment he wondered if he was truly ready to stay in Rocky Point and