Chapter 16

Allie's heart beat faster in anticipation as she caught her first fleeting glimpse of the city she'd known and loved as a child. There were things about it that weren't good and memories that she hated, but it defined her as much as the man that sat patiently beside her watching every emotion cross her expressive features. As they cleared the mountains and drove closer toward the ocean, she turned excitedly toward Jay and asked if she could open the window.

"Of course," he said indulgently, leaning his head against the leather seat and watching her with a look that could only be described as satisfaction.

Allie turned her back on him, not wanting to understand what that look meant. She opened the window partway and breathed, taking the scent of the ocean deep into her lungs and savouring it. She hadn't been to the coast since her mother moved to Kelowna seven years ago. Though she longed for the ocean, like a tiny missing piece of her soul, it made more sense to visit her mother in t