Breaker's Reef by Terri Blackstock Page A

Sadie wanted to shrink back, but Scott headed into the midst of the crowd.
    “Hey, guys. What’s up?”
    “Are you really the one who found Emily the other night?” Annie Malone’s voice gushed with adoration.
    “Yeah, that was me, but I can’t talk about an ongoing police investigation, guys.”
    “Do you have your gun with you?”
    Scott shot Bret Ames a look that suggested he was an idiot. “No, Bozo, I’m not carrying a piece, and even if I were, I wouldn’t let you see it. It’s not a toy.”
    Sadie watched Scott bask in the admiration of his former classmates. He deserved it … but it was the last way she wanted to spend their date.
    As if he sensed her feelings, Scott reached back and took her hand. “You guys know my date, Sadie, don’t you?”
    The gesture surprised her. The gossip would be all over the island within an hour. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
    Then, through the crowd, she saw someone watching her. Matt stood there, his hands in his pockets, looking at her holding Scott’s hand.
    She let his hand go and crossed her arms. Why had she done that? Was it worry for his feelings, when she didn’t even know for sure how he felt? Or was it because she didn’t want him to think she and Scott were an item?
    She honestly didn’t know.
    Matt didn’t come closer. Instead, he walked away and was gone before she could stop him.
    She considered running after him, but what would she say? If he was interested in her, why hadn’t he ever made a move?
    Scott Crown had done so, and he was proud to be with her, even if she was a high school student.
    And there was something to be said for that.

CHAPTER 15
    T he sun melted into the horizontal clouds that seemed to hang over Hanover House, and Amelia Roarke realized it would be dark soon. The sight of that peaceful sky—like a banner that promised nothing bad could ever happen here—should have relaxed her. Instead, she couldn’t breathe.
    She needed a paper sack to blow into, to signal to her lungs that they didn’t have to coil up like tightly balled fists. “I can’t do this. Keep driving.”
    Her best friend Jamie clutched the steering wheel. “Come on, Amelia. We came all the way here. We’ve driven by that house four times. We’re going to stop and knock on that door.”
    Amelia thought she might throw up as they rolled toward the driveway. “No, I
can’t!
Please, don’t turn in there. We’ll do it tomorrow.”
    She’d never figured herself for a coward, yet here she was, shivering like her life depended on the person behindthat door, the woman who had given birth to her nineteen years earlier.
    The mother she’d never met.
    The truth was, she was scared of how she’d feel when that door opened. What if her mother answered the door and mistook her for an encyclopedia salesman? What if she slammed the door in her face?
    Or worse, what if she invited her in and listened as Amelia told her that she was the child she’d given up for adoption? She could get angry and rail about sealed records and ruined lives. She could throw her out without even a smile.
    Anything could happen.
    Her parents had warned her—her
real
parents, who had loved her and raised her, stayed up with her when she was sick, and wept when she went off to college. Still, no matter how much they loved her, they just didn’t get it. They’d been hurt, as if her search was a personal assault on them.
    But the questions ate at Amelia, and she often woke up thinking about this mystery woman who gave her up. What did her mother look like? Did she have any other kids? Who was Amelia’s father? Was he alive?
    She’d had to do the search behind her parents’ backs, using the computer and the resources she’d learned about on a Listserv for adoptees. It took more than a year to find out her mother’s name and another year to locate her.
    When Amelia learned she lived in a place called Cape Refuge, she thought the name sounded like shelter, peace, a place where