Chapter ONE - Weebly

I’m … I’m working on something.”
She nodded.
After another awkward moment, Ethan said,
“Good-bye, Elli,” and walked past her back toward the
door.
Elli didn’t turn, but as he pulled the door open she
called, “Thank you for telling me.”
“Tell them I said good-bye.”
Then he was outside, descending the steps and
striding back down the lane, eager to be out of the
North End. The warm evening air felt good on his face,
and he was breathing easier now that he was out of
Elli’s house.
He didn’t love her anymore. He grew more certain
of that every time he saw her. But he did desperately
miss being in love with her. He had been happiest in
those months before the Ruby Blade sailed, and during
his years as a prisoner he had clung to the memory of
that happiness the way a sailor lost amid the swells of
an angry sea clings to a scrap of wood. There was a
part of him that still feared letting go.
In that moment he wanted nothing so much as to go