little while to catch the ferry

little while to catch the ferry.” He nodded, though he wasn’t completely satisfied by her answer. “Are you mad at me?” “No,” she said. “Are you sorry about what happened?” “No,” she said, “it’s not that, either.” She didn’t, however, add
anything else, and Jeremy pulled her closer, trying to believe her. “It’s an interesting book,” he said, not wanting to press her. “I hope to spend a bit of time with it later.” Lexie smiled. “It’s been a while since I’ve looked through it.
Seeing it here brings back memories.” “How so?” She hesitated, then pointed down at the open page in her lap.
“When you were reading it earlier, did you get to this entry?” “No,” he answered. “Read it,” she said. Jeremy read the entry quickly; in many ways, it seemed identi
cal to the others. The first names of the parents, the age, how far along the woman was in her pregnancy. And the fact that the woman would have a girl. When he finished, he looked at her.
“Does it mean anything to you?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking,” he admitted.
“The names Jim and Claire don’t mean anything to you?”
“No.” He scrutinized her face. “Should they?”
Lexie lowered her eyes. “They were my parents,” she said, her
voice quiet. “This is the entry that predicted I would be a girl.” Jeremy raised his eyebrows quizzically. “That’s what I was thinking about,” she said. “We think we know each other, but you didn’t even know the names of my parents. And I don’t know the names of your parents.”
Jeremy felt a knot beginning to form in his stomach. “And that bothers you? That you don’t think we know each other that well?”
“No,” she said. “What bothers me is that I don’t know if we ever will.”
Then, with a tenderness that made his heart ache, she wrapped her arms around him. For a long time, they sat in the chair holding each other, both of them wishing they could stay in that moment forever.
Chapter 16

So this is your friend, huh?” Lexie asked.
She gestured discreetly to the holding cell. Although Lexie had lived in Boone Creek all her life, she’d never had the privilege of visiting the county jail—until today.
Jeremy nodded. “He’s not normally like this,” he whispered back.
Earlier in the morning, they had packed their belongings and closed up the beach cottage, each reluctant to leave it behind. But when they drove off the ferry in Swan Quarter, Jeremy’s cell phone picked up enough signal strength to retrieve his messages. Nate had left four of them about the upcoming meeting; Alvin, on the other hand, had left a frantic one saying that he’d been arrested.
Lexie had dropped Jeremy off at his car, and he’d followed her back to Boone Creek, worried about Alvin, but worried about Lexie as well. Lexie’s disconcerting mood, which had started in the predawn darkness, had continued for the next few hours. Though she hadn’t pulled away when he slipped his arm around her on the ferry, she’d been quiet, gazing at the waters of the Pamlico Sound. When she smiled, it was only a flicker, and when he took her hand, she didn’t squeeze his. Nor would she talk about what she’d said to him earlier; strangely, she spoke instead about the numerous shipwrecks off the coast, and when he did try to steer the conversation toward more serious issues, she either changed the subject or didn’t answer at all.