“How?” Julianne’s head snapped around toward her father, her mouth agape.
“You were never around. Even when you weren’t working with Bill or painting, I practically never saw 205
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you. And you know, I don’t think Remi’s parents had seen much of him, as I recall from some extremely awkward small talk.” Julianne blushed. “It’s really okay, honey,” her father continued offhandedly. “Believe it or not, I was in love once too.”
Julianne leapt off the window seat and followed her father toward the kitchen.
“Between you and me, your grandfather wasn’t so wild about his ‘hippie son-in-law’ when your mom and I first got together.” Her dad opened the refrigerator and reached for a small blue Tupperware container of sprouts and some pita bread.
“What happened?” Julianne asked eagerly.
“Nothing, really. These things take time. All you can do is try to listen closely and follow what your heart is telling you. Can you pass me the hummus, sweetie?” Julianne ducked down, plucked the container of hummus from the bottom shelf of the fridge, and tossed it out to her father. “You’re a good egg, Julianne Kahn, and I’m proud of you always.” Dad held his arms out for a hug, and Julianne curled up against his broad chest and let herself be held. She was beyond happy.
Just then, Julianne and Dad heard the quiet click of heels coming in from the hallway, and Chloe walked into the kitchen. Her hazel eyes were cast toward the floor.
Julianne looked up, the warmth and security of her father’s hug draining out of her as cold damp fear about 206
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being in the same room with Chloe trickled in. She swallowed hard and tried to brace herself for Chloe’s anger.
But it never came. Julianne had never seen her sister look so sheepish. Knowing that a convincing poker face was not one of Chloe’s many talents, Julianne could only assume she’d been listening. She wanted to laugh.
Subtlety was never one of her sister’s strengths.
Chloe was shaking ever so slightly, and her coffee-colored hair was staticky around the crown of her head—
Julianne knew that when Chloe was nervous she ran her fingers through her hair compulsively. It looked like Chloe had been nervous for quite a while.
“Um, hi.” Chloe’s voice was quiet and tentative.
“Welcome home, Dad.”
Dad smiled benevolently in the direction of his older daughter.
Chloe cleared her throat and smoothed her wrinkled scrub shirt. “Hey, Jules.”
“Hey.” Julianne really didn’t know what to say next.
A part of her wanted to run over and throw her arms around her sister. Another part of her wanted to hit Chloe in the face with a pie. She also considered hopping in the sisters’ shared hybrid and not looking back until she’d safely crossed the state border.
“Um, I was sort of listening out there and I have a few things I’d like to say.” Chloe’s voice pulled Julianne from her imagined escape back into the warm kitchen.
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Julianne found her own voice hiding in the back of her throat and piped up. “Listen, Chloe, I know that you’re angry at me right now. I know that I let you down, and I know that I should have been honest with you, but if you give me a chance to explain—”
“I don’t want an explanation from you, Julianne.” Chloe’s voice had a note of finality to it that terrified Jules.
“Chloe, really, just hear me out.” She didn’t want to plead with her sister, but she needed Chloe to understand her—to forgive her—the way Dad had.
“No, Jules. I don’t need to. I really don’t.” Chloe’s tone left little room for discussion and it stopped Jules dead in her tracks. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Julianne was stunned. After all the silence and the slamming doors and the icy glares, now Chloe was holding out the proverbial olive branch? As much as Julianne had wanted this, hoped for it, daydreamed about it over the last week, she honestly hadn’t expected it to happen.
She knew she was staring at her sister as though Chloe had grown an extra head, but she could not find a single word to say in response.
Chloe continued resolutely. “I’m really sorry for all of the horrible things I said. Well, except the things about the Moores’ house. I totally meant all of those.
And it felt really good to say them, too.” A grin flickered across Chloe’s lips, and she and Julianne both let out a 208
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nervous laugh. “But about you and about Remi—I’m sorry. I had no right to say any of that, and it was wrong.
I was wrong.”
Julianne watched Chloe’s face as she spoke. Her chin was set in determination. Her eyes were nearly transpar-ent in their intensity, and as she spoke, it was as if Chloe relaxed into the truth of her words. Her shoulders dropped as the tension drained out of them.
“You didn’t betray us. I’m sorry for saying that. I’m sorry for thinking it. I don’t know where that came from and it was a whole lot of melodramatic guilt to throw at you. You were just trying to be true to yourself. And I’ve always loved that about you.” Chloe made her way down the kitchen counter until she was standing next to Jules and her father and let herself be swept into the family hug. “I am so sorry. I didn’t realize how irrational and cruel I was being,” Chloe continued, both Jules’s and Dad’s arms wrapped around her. “I guess the scientific black-or-white thing isn’t always the best way to approach emotional questions.”
Julianne practically burst with relief. “Well, if we’re being fair, I don’t think sneaking around the way I did was the best choice I’ve ever made. I guess I was just so afraid of what you would think that it never occurred to me to actually level with you.”
Chloe laughed. “Okay, this is getting a little too after-school special, even for me. I’m seriously going to start 209
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crying if we don’t ratchet down the heart-to-heart factor a little bit here.”
“Ooooh noooo,” Julianne warned. “I’m not done with you yet.” She pitched her voice up into a dramatic falsetto. “Oh, Chloe, how can you ever forgive me? You’re my best friend in the world—I would be lost without you. Chloe, just tell me what to do to make it up to you . . . anything.” Julianne widened her eyes earnestly, and batted her long eyelashes at her sister.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Cue the made-for-TV music.” Julianne sighed dramatically. “Fiiine. I guess you’ll never know the deeply heartfelt lessons I’ve learned from this whole growing process.” Chloe smiled. “You know, I think I’ve got some ideas.” The look on her face said she completely understood.
Dad pulled the girls in close, and they all stared out over the ocean. They just stood there, close to one another.
“I really am sorry about what happened with your painting,” Chloe said seriously. “I know how hard you worked on it. And how much it meant to you to do that for Mom.”
Julianne shrugged, but she felt a lump forming at the back of her throat. “I just wanted to keep a little tiny piece of her alive, I guess.”
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Dad spoke gently. “You know, girls, we don’t need a painting, or this house, or this beach to know what home feels like. Don’t you worry about Mom’s memory.
No matter where we are, she’ll be with us.” Julianne felt her mouth stretching into a grin, her eyes brimming with happy tears.
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Chapter Twenty-three
!
Julianne was running down the beach at full speed, the sand flying under her sneakers, the sun racing to keep up with her. Since the flooding had mauled her painting, she had been running on the beach each day to clear her head. She usually didn’t run much outside of cross-country season, and she was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed it. Her iPod was strapped to her arm with an athletic strap, and despite being pulled back with a blue stretchy headband, a handful of loose curls stuck to her neck. She could feel the music propelling her down the beach. She ran through Kelly Clarkson, Fergie, Beyoncé, and Missy Elliott, but when Gwen Stefani snuck into the shuffle, she felt herself launching ahead double-time over the 212