Is It Any Wonder (Nantucket Love Story #2) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,134

quite possibly, younger than Emily. And she had that beautiful little boy and probably a devoted husband waiting for her somewhere. That life had never appealed to Emily, but in that moment—and it was a fleeting one—something tugged at her insides.

But Emily didn’t have time for heartache when she was about to get off the ferry. She grabbed her suitcase, her purse, and the large bag she’d stuffed with toiletries, Kind bars (to keep from eating junk), dark chocolate–covered blueberries (because sometimes it was okay to eat junk), two books, and anything else that hadn’t fit in her suitcase.

She made her way to the door of the ferry and drew in a deep, deep breath.

I can do hard things.

She’d tossed the mantra around in her head for so many months, the words were meaningless by now. Well, they were pretty much already meaningless because once a phrase caught on and became popular, it lost its value. Every fitness expert in America probably shouted those words out as they reached the fourteenth rep of a particularly challenging exercise.

But she could do hard things. She’d been doing hard things since she was eleven years old.

Emily stood at the edge of the island and took another salt-tinged breath, the faint smell of fish reminding her that not everything near the ocean was lovely. Certainly not.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and willed herself to press onward. She hadn’t come this far to chicken out now, and besides, what other choice did she have?

Sometimes she wished Nantucket hadn’t been ruined for her. Just another complaint to add to the pile, she supposed. If she wasn’t careful, she’d rack up so many she’d become one of those cranky old women whose mouths were permanently frowning, like that cartoon character, Maxine, on the Hallmark cards.

Or her own grandmother.

But no, that would never be her. Not Emily Ackerman. Not the girl who looked for fun wherever she went (and usually found it). Not the free-spirited wanderer who’d worked acting jobs all over the world, had more friends than she could keep track of, and knew exactly how to turn every trip into an adventure.

This was just another trip, right? Never mind that this trip had a purpose other than fun. This trip was her second chance—and she could not screw it up.

That certainly put a damper on any plans for a good time.

She dragged her single suitcase behind her, aware how pathetic it was that at the age of thirty-one, she could fit nearly everything important to her in one suitcase—and it wasn’t even the largest one in the set her grandmother had sent when she graduated from college nine years ago.

She heaved a sigh and moved with the flow of foot traffic as tourists flooded off the ferry and onto the street. When she was a girl, this was the moment she looked forward to all year long—the moment her flip-flops hit the cobblestones, the moment she and her mom arrived in Nantucket.

So much had changed.

As she watched Andrew’s red-and-yellow backpack disappear into the crowd, she said a quick prayer that his days in Nantucket were filled with nothing but good things—lobster boils and fish fries, giant ice cream cones from the Juice Bar and long, sun-kissed days at Jetties Beach.

She wished for him all the things she would’ve held on to if Nantucket hadn’t been ruined for her all those years ago.

And suddenly, she wasn’t so sure she actually could do hard things.

But she was about to find out.

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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

DEAR READER,

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I want you to know how much you mean to me. Knowing how many books there are for you to choose from, it humbles and amazes me that you would choose to spend time reading one of mine. It means the absolute world to me.

I think one of the best things about being an author has been getting to know many of you—I’ve met some of you in real life, and many are simply “online friends,” but you all make my days brighter, and I’m grateful to you for that.

As seems to be a theme in many of my stories, forgiveness plays a large part in this one. Maybe it’s because it’s something I’m constantly striving to get right, or it’s an area of my life that needs regular care and attention. Either way, it’s a lesson worth keeping at the forefront of my mind, and I hope that