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broken marriage, spent what precious little spare time they had together. |
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Like most places on the beach, her two bedroom bungalow was built on massive steel beams that jutted out of the sandy earth and suspended the living quarters over a parking area underneath. He pulled in and parked beside her car, raced up the back steps and ended up knocking twice before she answered. |
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When she opened the door, her eyes were swollen; she had been crying. ''Damn," she muttered through a half-smile, "I didn't want you to see me like this." |
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"Just feeling a little sorry for myself," she admitted. It was a level of honesty she hadn't attained with anyone on South Padre except Bart Miller. |
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Bartholomew glanced around the room. Unpacked cartons and a collection of odd boxes still cluttered the living room. She kept excusing the mess, telling him she just hadn't found time to tackle it. "And," she had confided once, "there are things in some of those cartons I'm not sure I'm ready to face just yet." |
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She led him through the house into the kitchen, poured him a cup of coffee, and they sat down next to each other at the small breakfast bar with the big view of the gulf. |
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