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“I don’t want an explanation from you, Julia

“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.” Julia

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 Julia

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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.”

Julia

“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.”

Julia

Chloe laughed. “Okay, this is getting a little too after-school special, even for me. I’m seriously going to start 209

Hailey Abbott

crying if we don’t ratchet down the heart-to-heart factor a little bit here.”

“Ooooh noooo,” Julia

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Cue the made-for-TV music.” Julia

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.”

Julia

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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.” Julia

211

Chapter Twenty-three

!

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uneven ground. Julia

Since her talk with Dad and Chloe, life in the Kahn household had been warm, fun, and relatively unevent-full once again—if somewhat bittersweet. Julia

As she headed back down the beach for home, Julia

Julia

After talking about it a lot with Dad and Chloe, Julia

Fair or not, he was still tangled up in the messy web of the summer’s hurt and loss, and Julia

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with. She shifted her eyes away from the looming construction and focused instead on the gleaming, turquoise water. The ocean looked like an exact replica of Julia

Arriving on the porch, her sound track still blaring in her ears, Julia

She padded into her bedroom in her white ankle socks with green and yellow pom-poms. When Julia

Forbidden Boy

they’d ruin her athletic cred. Julia