Chapter 92

• With Nicholas still absent from the bedroom, Annabelle wanders down the hallway and out the open door onto the second-story terrace. She walks to the railing that overlooks the lower patio and the ocean beyond, leaning against it and enjoying the nighttime breeze whispering over her face and the sight of the moonlight on the dancing waves.
• She is overwhelmed by the sequence of events that has brought her to stand where she is. One minute she is lonely, afraid, and feeling too guilty to live again, and a few weeks later she is here with a man who’s complicated and wonderful, and so incredibly alive. Annabelle has gone from empty and aching and raw to happy and sated, feeling like she is having a slightly out-of-body experience.
• “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any sexier, I find you wearing one of my favorite shirts,” his words startle her from her thoughts, and she turns to find him beside her, holding a glass of wine out to her.