The day dawned sunny and windy. Perfect day for a beach outing which she agreed to attend with her friend Angela. She had only been back in town a couple of days when they decided to get together. This was exactly what she needed to relax. The last couple of months had been stressful packing up her dead husband's possessions. He had passed away 4 months ago in a car accident. Thankfully he had a large life insurance policy to make sure she was taken care of. If he was nothing else, he was a planner.

Rick was her second husband. Her first husband, Edward, decided after 6 years of marriage that he was gay and ran off with the pool boy. Since he was loaded, he paid her a nice settlement to sign the divorce papers without much fuss. It took her over a year to regain her confidence in herself and start dating. Rick was a financial planner at the firm she hired to help with the settlement she was given. She never wanted to go through the stress and worry of not knowing how she was going to survive when Edward asked for a divorce. He wouldn't let her work so she had no experience and no money. To her Rick was plainly straight, a bit boring, but perfect in that she knew he would never leave her. Unfortunately fate had other ideas. Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, Rick was on his way home when the bridge he was on collapsed. 25 people died that day and he was one of them. She felt guilty that his death didn't hit her harder emotionally but she wasn't with him due to a great love. She was with him because he was safe and stable.

Now at the ripe age of 35, she was single and alone. Moving back to her hometown was something she never had considered, but her father had just suffered a heart attack and needed help. So she packed up her life and headed to Forks. While shopping for healthier food, she ran into Angela. They had kept in touch mainly but not like they should. Angela invited her to a beach party and bonfire down on First Beach in La Push. She remembered going there once or twice when she was growing up but that was all. Spending time in the sun and relaxing sounded like heaven after spending the last two days unpacking and getting Charlie settled. She had invited him to go with her but apparently that area held bad memories for him so he opted to stay home.

Angela came and picked her up around 10am. They wanted to get as much sun as possible today since it was a rare sunny day in Forks. They chatted about inconsequential things on the way. She was in no mood to dig deep today. Arriving at the beach, they laid their towels done and relaxed. Time had no meaning to her right now. The sun and waves washed away her anxiety and stress. Now she remembered what she liked about the beach. It was so peaceful that you could momentarily forget your problems. After eating a bit of the lunch they brought, she decided to just walk and enjoy the water. She happened upon a log that looked old but sturdy and decided to sit.

Looking out at the ocean, she tried to put her feelings into order. She knew she was fine to be alone and thought that maybe it was time to stay alone. She had always relied on a man to support her and never learned to support herself. She needed to take this time to find herself and vowed that she would learn how to be happy with herself. Edward was her first real love and he destroyed her when he left. He never gave her hints that he was in anyway unhappy with their life. True they never had kids but he had told her that he wanted to make sure they were ready before having a baby. They married right out of high school so he felt that he wanted to see the world and experience life before settling down and having kids. At no time did he ever seem like anything was missing. Apparently she missed something because the entire time he was only pretending. Ok so their marriage wasn't the intense love that she always thought a marriage was to be. In fact she honestly thought there was something wrong with her because she had never had those intense feelings for anyone. She loved Edward but was more hurt that she wasn't enough then that he left her. He destroyed her self-confidence but not her heart. Rick was stable to where she knew that she wouldn't be hurt and he slowly gave her confidence back. He was always polite and told her how pretty she was, complimenting her taste in clothes. But again there was no intense passion there. Maybe she was deficient in that area. She might just be that one person that couldn't feel passion and intense love. Maybe she was just dead inside.

Deciding she had enough self-reflection, she headed back to where Angela was. As she got closer, she noticed a huge man standing near her fiend and talking. Angela had told her she was dating one of the men that lived down on the res so she figured this was him. Angela introduced him as Embry and she found him very pleasant to talk to. He was incredibly funny and very smart. He told them the bonfire was starting down a bit on the beach so they grabbed their stuff and took off walking. She noticed a group of large men with women standing at a table arranging food. The fire was blazing and music was booming.

Deciding to see if they women needed help, she headed towards the women, ignoring the men around the fire. The women introduced themselves as Emily, who was married to Quil, Leah, who was married to Sam, Kim, who was married to Jared, and Rachel, who was married to Paul. There were a few kids running here and there they belonged to them also. She decided not even to try to remember who went with who cause she would never remember. She found herself really liking the women but especially Rachel whose personality was very fiery but with a sweet tone. As she stood there talking to her the noise level increased and then she heard a sound that almost stole her breath. The laugh was large and booming but the tone was husky and deep. She had to know where the sound came from so she turned towards the fire and saw a man taller than the rest with his back to her. She knew that this was not one of the husbands and was very curious to know who he was. As she decided to ask Rachel who he was, she noticed he was turning around. There was no more breath in her lungs as she met the deepest brown eyes she had ever seen. Fire hit her veins and her stomach dropped out. Maybe she wasn't dead emotionally after all.