Saratoga Woods 02 The Edge of the Water by Elizabeth George Read Free Book Online

wanted him, yes. But there were times when she also felt that she
was
him and that he was her. It was as if they occasionally exchanged souls. So when times were rough, her soul went missing. Becca knew that, at heart, Derric felt the same way. What do you do when another person is also your soul? she wondered. When the soul gets angry with the body that houses it, what comes next?
    “Sitting with the pain,” Diana murmured. “Lord, I remember how that is.”
    “The worst,” Becca said.
    “Especially when the only way through it is . . . through it.” Diana put her hand on Becca’s arm across the purple table. For a moment she said nothing and yet despite her saying nothing, Becca felt enormously comforted by her touch.
    Still Becca said, “Sometimes I wish stuff between people didn’t have to be so tough. Sometimes I wish life didn’t have to be so tough.”
    “I hear you on that,” Diana replied.
    Something in her tone made Becca look at her hard. There was always an undercurrent with Diana, a suggestion that things weren’t as peaceful as they seemed to be. But Diana never said word one about what those things were, and since Becca couldn’t hear her thoughts when Diana didn’t want them to be heard, she had no clue what elements in Diana Kinsale’s life might not be what she wanted. Becca knew that Diana was a longtime widow with no children, but that was it. Anything more, Diana never revealed.
    Yet something from the first had told Becca that she and Diana shared numerous qualities of character. So still she came to see Diana when she was able, drawn to her in much the same way as she was drawn to Derric. She had a feeling they’d been fated to meet. She just didn’t know why.
    Diana released her arm with a pat. “I didn’t see your bike outside. Did you come on foot?” When Becca nodded, Diana got to her feet. “Let me drive you back to the motel.”
    There was no way to get around this one. When Becca said that a ride into town wasn’t necessary and that the exercise would do her good, Diana pointed out that it was dark outside, the day had been freezing cold and was getting colder, and Becca’s declaration that she would rather walk or jog just wasn’t going to cut it. So Becca ended up saying she’d be grateful for the lift into town, and all along she hoped Diana didn’t intend to stop by the motel and have a friendly chat with Debbie Grieder, which would put her in a very bad spot.
    As things turned out, she didn’t have to worry. Diana plucked a list off the bulletin board in her mudroom on their way out and said she had to pick up a few things at the Star Store in Langley anyway. So it was all good, and in a few moments, they were trundling on their way in Diana’s pickup, along the rolling route that was Sandy Point Road. They had no further conversation since the Dixie Chicks were singing at nearly full volume and Diana was singing along with them.
    At the Cliff Motel, Diana stopped at the edge of the parking lot. She said, “Give my best to Debbie,” and Becca promised that she would. She made a pretense of walking in the direction of her old room, but once Diana had turned the corner and headed into town, she ducked through a line of rhododendrons that formed a boundary between the motel’s parking lot and a vacant lot next to it, and she quickly crossed this and hurried in the same direction that Diana herself had taken. She needed to get to the closest stop for the island bus. It was, unfortunately, not far from the Star Store.
    The distance wasn’t great. It took her along a street called Cascade that followed the top of the bluff on which the small village of Langley sat. Beneath this was an old marina with a bulwark protecting a few boats docked there from the roiling waters of Saratoga Passage. In the distance, the lights from the city of Everett blinked on the mainland. Closer at hand, the lights along Cascade Street cast pools of illumination on the first of the