Page 33 of Devlin

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"Yes, but I only heard bits and pieces, and my dad refused to fill in the blanks. He told me not to tell anyone you had been there." She paused, waiting for him to say something, but he remained silent. "What happened, Devlin?"

"It was a long time ago,Hannah."

"Someone you cared about died. Was it sudden? Was it an accident?"

He didn't answer, but he did make a turn. He drove down a street that dead-ended at the beach, then turned off the engine, staring out at the sea once more.

"Are you going to tell me?" she asked tentatively.

His gaze swung to hers. "I don't know. I might regret it."

"Then maybe you shouldn't.It's personal, and I'm being too pushy—as usual."

He blew out a breath. "She wasn't anything like you, Hannah."

She didn't know if she should take that as an insult or a compliment. Maybe this conversation was a bad idea… But it was too late now.

CHAPTER SEVEN

"AMY WAS QUIET,"Devlin said. "She was a people pleaser and a peacemaker and probably one of the sweetest people I've ever known. We met at the beginning of our senior year at Yale. She was a photographer and was taking photos of one of my sailing races for the collegenewspaper. We started talking, and we never stopped."

She could hear the love in his voice and felt an odd tingle of envy run through her, but she could not be jealous of this poor young woman who had died too young. "What happened to her, Devlin?"

"She was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer right after Christmas. We'd only been dating since October, and it seemed surreal.She thought she'd pulled a muscle in yoga, but when the pain didn't go away after a few weeks, she finally went to the doctor. It was a devastating diagnosis. We were twenty-one years old. It seemed impossible that she could suddenly be that sick when she was fine before that."

"I can't even imagine."

"The disease moved very quickly. Her parents wanted to take her home, but she wastoo sick to move, so they got a rental by the school and took care of her there until she went into the hospital. I spent a lot of time with them. We were all trying to be positive, but by the end of March, she was gone."

"That is so fast."

He stared out at the sea. "I don't know how I made it through the last quarter of school. I was completely numb. But I felt compelled to graduate,because Amy had made me promise that I would, that I'd walk across the stage for both of us. That's what I did."

There was so much pain in his voice, her heart broke for him. "I'm sorry, Devlin. Maybe you should stop talking."

He ignored her suggestion, turning his gaze on her. "Even though I knew her death was coming, it still shocked the hell out of me. I wasn't ready. I don'tthink she was, either. We had only ever talked about her getting better, about the future she'd have—we'dhave. When I would leave her at night, I'd tell her I'd see her soon. And she'd smile and say she couldn’t wait. But one night she slipped away while I was sleeping. Her dad came and woke me up, but it was over. I never got to say good-bye."

"That's awful."

"Worst experienceof my life."

"Was anyone there for you, Devlin?"

"My parents came down once, but they didn't know Amy; they had never met her. It felt awkward, and I just wanted to be with Amy, so I asked them to go home—same with my brothers and cousins. I knew they wanted to help, but I felt like Amy and her parents and I were in this narrow tunnel, and there wasn't room for anyone else."

"That sounds kind of lonely, but I guess I understand."

"Maybe it would have been different if they'd known her, but they'd never met her when she was healthy and after she got sick, she didn’t want to see anyone."

She nodded, still hating the fact that Devlin had gone through such a tragedy on his own.

"After I graduated," he continued, "I came here to King Harbor. I workedat the Boatworks, thinking I could find some peace in this place that I loved so much, but after the grief left, I was filled with anger. I drank a lot—way too much. One night, I got into a fight. The bartender called your dad. Frank came and pulled me out of the bar and took me to your house. He knew I couldn't handle dealing with my parents at that moment."

"That's what he told me whenhe went to get you, that you were going through a tough time and that you had enough to deal with."

"That night was a turning point for me. I knew I had to get my shit together, but I had to do it somewhere else. I got a job crewing on a luxury yacht, and I spent the next two years traveling the world."

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