Page 51 of Finding Home

Her reply came as they pulled away from a set of traffic lights.

I knew it would. Have a safe trip home.

He looked at her reply and sighed. Sapphire Bay had become his home, even more so since he’d met Julie.

With one last look at her text, he put his phone away and saw the airport.

Chapter 32

The article went live at six fifty-three in the morning.

Julie knew the exact time because she’d been watching her phone, the screen brightness turned all the way down against the grey light in the cab of her truck. She’d parked at the end of Cole’s driveway five minutes earlier, with the heater keeping her warm.

She hadn’t gone inside yet.

The notification came from Griffin first. It was a single line of text that said Lead story. Well done. Then the Beacon’s website loaded and her name sat at the top of the page beneath the headline.

Shell Company, Sabotage, and Silence: How a Competitor Tried to Kill Sapphire Bay’s Biggest Development

She read the whole thing from the beginning, even though she’d read it four times the night before. Checking was habit. Checking was how you made sure nothing had slipped through.

She slowly moved through each paragraph making sure everything felt right. The structure was clean, the sourcing was careful, and it said no more than what it needed to say.

Julie lowered the phone to her lap and looked at Cole’s house.

His kitchen light was on. They’d had dinner together last night, and she’d said nothing about the story going to press. She’d wanted to tell him, and then she’d not wanted to tell him, and finally she’d decided telling him could wait until she knew what the response was going to be.

Now she had a response.

Her phone buzzed again. A number she didn’t recognize, and then another. She checked and found the Beacon’s social account had already been tagged twice by local business pages. One of them was the general store on Main Street. The other was the florist two doors down from the candy store.

Her phone rang. Maria’s name glowed from her screen. “Hi, Maria.”

“Why didn’t you tell us the story was being published today? The diner has been buzzing since we read it.” Maria was almost too excited for this time of the morning. “Leon put your article up on the counter on his tablet. Three people have come in since I’ve been here, and all of them had already read it. One of the women who comes in for an early coffee said she’d shared it on the community Facebook page.”

Julie’s eyes widened. “That’s something.”

“It’s more than something. Julie, people are talking. What you wrote, and the way you explained what happened, needed to be said.” Maria paused. Someone called her name in the background. “I have to go, but I wanted you to know that everyone’s impressed.”

After Maria hung up, Julie sat for another minute. Then she got out of the truck.

Cole let her in before she’d raised her hand to knock, the way he always did, as if he’d heard the truck door close. He had his reading glasses on and two mugs of coffee waiting in the kitchen.

“I saw the article,” he said. “But I haven’t read it.”

She sipped the coffee he handed to her. It was still hot. “Okay.”

Cole turned and walked to the kitchen table. His phone was face-up beside the salt shaker, and his laptop was open to the Beacon’s website. He sat down and looked at the screen.

Julie took the chair across from him and said nothing.

She watched him read.

His eyes moved steadily down the page. He must have been near the end when the faint tightness around his mouth eased as if something he’d been braced for hadn’t arrived. His eyes moved back to the top of the screen, and he read the article again. She tracked the small shift in his posture, the way his shoulders dropped half an inch.

He looked up from his laptop without closing the lid.

“It’s fair,” he said. “And it’s true.”