to her: the street with the cottage her family had once rented. Without thinking, she turned and headed in that direction.
Ten minutes later, her steps paused and her pulse quickened. The cottage was still there. It was much smaller than she remembered. At one time, it might have even been a garage, a part of the main house behind it, which was a large two-story structure with a wide central porch and shutters. The exterior paint had faded on both the cottage and the main house, and the small porch on the cottage slouched unevenly with the toll the years had taken on it.
Cottage by the sea.
The one place where she’d spent the happiest days of her life with her family. She had found her way back. She had found her happy place.
CHAPTER 4
As Annie made the return drive to Seattle, she felt the grief gradually seep back in and surround her soul. Her speed decreased until car horns blasted her as they sped past, and she realized she was driving forty miles an hour on a road where the speed limit was sixty. She could feel herself becoming surrounded by the darkness again. The closer she came to her apartment, the more difficult it became to breathe.
Annie had spent the night in a motel in Oceanside, and for the first time since the accident, the very first time in sixteen months, she’d slept straight through until morning. When she woke, she was shocked to find it was daylight. Nightmares had continually plagued her, but she woke rested, in stark contrast to nearly every other night since the disaster.
Because it was raining, she had quickly loaded up the car, checked out, and returned to Seattle. That was when she figured it out. As she neared the city, she could distinctly feel her heart grow heavy as the sadness slipped back into place. It wasn’t her imagination. She’d only been half kidding that she’d found her happy place when she texted Gabby, but the joke was on her. She knew where she belonged now.
Once back in Seattle, Annie was restless and at loose ends. She hadn’t worked as a PA since the tragedy. She couldn’t, not with all the demands on her time, the legal issues, and the counseling sessions. Agitated, she paced the small living room, unsure of what was wrong. All she could think about was the beach, and the need—no, the urgency—to return there, if for no other reason than to escape the dark cloud that hung over her head.
The mural she’d seen of the girl who resembled her had to be a sign. It started to make perfect sense: Oceanside was more than a place to visit; this was where she needed to be. After all these months of not working, she felt the first stirrings of desire to get back to work, back to the career she’d once loved.
Logging on to her computer, she looked at available jobs in the area, scrolling down the list. She nearly gasped aloud when she saw a posting in Oceanside’s only medical clinic. They were looking to hire a PA.
This couldn’t be a coincidence. This job listing had God’s fingerprints all over it. This was her fate, as much a miracle as the parting of the Red Sea. First the girl in the mural who looked identical to her as a teenager, and now this—an opening for a physician assistant in Oceanside. To Annie, it felt like this move was meant to be.
She completed the application form and submitted it via email, attaching certifications for both Washington state and California. It came as no surprise that she didn’t have long to wait for a response. Within twenty-four hours, she had an interview scheduled.
Twice within one week, she packed an overnight bag and drove to Oceanside. As she neared the ocean, she felt the weight lifting from her shoulders and light descending upon her. That single ray of sunshine was narrow and small, but she could feel it, as tiny as it was. She supposed what she felt was something like a reprieve, someone or something giving her a break from all the dark, with a tiny bit of hope that she could pull herself through that hole and back into the light.
Annie drove directly to the medical clinic without stopping for a meal or a bathroom break. The interview was scheduled for right after lunch with the only doctor at the clinic. Not having held a job for