Sea Glass Sunrise Read Online Free PDF

folding her arms over her buttoned-up, uniformed bosom. Not that it mattered. Her steely gaze did much the same. “Speaking of which, what is Tim the Titan of Finance’s excuse this time? And don’t bother telling me he’s coming because it’s all over your face that he’s leaving you to pull wedding duty alone. At least he didn’t keep you from coming home this time.”
    “No,” Hannah said quietly, no longer annoyed by Barbara’s nickname for him. He had plenty of far worse ones now. “Tim isn’t here. He’s not coming to the wedding. It’s just me.” The urge to simply unload and tell Barbara exactly how truthful a statement that was, to tell her every last thing that had happened, was so strong Hannah wasn’t sure she could hold it in another second. Then she noticed, or made herself notice, the door to Logan’s office in her peripheral vision. No, you can’t. Not until after his wedding .
    Hannah knew that the mere mention of Tim by her family and loved ones would cause her to relive the heartache all over again. But she’d promised herself she wouldn’t shed so much as a single additional tear over him, and willed her eyes to stay dry now. Surprisingly, despite her thumping, battered heart, they did. Maybe it was the accident trauma. Maybe her body could only focus on handling one type of pain at a time.
    “I know you all were looking forward to finally meeting him, but he’s not why I haven’t been home.” Hannah could blame Tim for a lot, and did so, freely, but she’d never been one to push off blame that was rightfully hers on someone else, no matter how tempting. “I would have come without him, it’s just been really—”
    “Busy. Yes, so you’ve said for the past three Christmases.”
    “It hasn’t been three, it’s only been . . .” She trailed off, did the math, and felt . . . sad. And annoyed with herself. Had it really been that long? It felt, in some ways, like a lifetime longer. Hannah lifted a shoulder, then flinched, as she was reminded, quite painfully, that that was the shoulder the seat-belt harness had done a number on during the crash. “It’s not because I didn’t want to be here. And I’m sorry. I truly am.” That much was true. “It’s just, in my business, holidays are a big time for networking and I was—we were both—trying to make a name for ourselves in our respective firms. This is the time in our lives we had to strike if we wanted to climb. If you don’t make your mark early, you generally don’t make one ever. I just—” Used to think that was important. Her shoulders slumped a little under the weight of... all of it, not the least of which was the subterfuge she’d decided to continue upon her return. “Logan understood, and Fi. Kerry hasn’t been back for even longer, and—”
    “And she’s been on another continent at the opposite end of the earth,” Barbara commented pointedly.
    Hannah glanced down. “I’ve missed all of you, terribly.” She knew the statement sounded heartfelt and sincere, because it was. Never more than after the past six months. She looked back up. “I’m really glad to be home.” She felt tears threatening now, and it made her face hurt that much worse, so she frowned slightly to try to quell them, and said, “So, what’s the deal with Winstock and the yacht club? Where on earth could he even build such a thing? Between the Monaghan shipyard and Blue’s fishing docks, there isn’t much real estate right on the harbor—”
    “He took Delia’s place. Right out from under her. Tried to snatch himself part of Monaghan’s, too, but got his fingers smacked away from that particular cookie jar by a friend of Grace’s with deep pockets.”
    “Grace? Grace who?” Hannah’s temples began to throb in earnest. Maybe she should have had more to eat in the past fourteen hours than chocolate pretzels and Diet Coke.
    Barbara must have seen something of the pain because her expression softened and she leaned