The salt air hit her in a way that her soon to be ex husband had not.

It was peaceful.

Serene.

Comforting.

It felt like home.

Her soul was beginning to relax.

She closed the car door and sighed as she looked into the back seat of her 2002 Suburban and found her four children sleeping silently.

“Margaret! You’re here!” a voice she had not heard in years cried out.

Margaret had hoped she would have at least two minutes before the family would begin bombarding her. It was in fact 6:37 in the morning and she had been driving all night.

Margaret sighed. Turning around she gave a half defeated smile to her sister.

“I’m here…” she trailed off as she shrugged with half-assed enthusiasm.

Her sister’s beauty was something that always struck her. Heather was younger than Margaret by 7 years. They never ran in the same circles because of that. It didn’t help that Heather was their mother’s doteful and most prioritized child.

‘The Chosen One’ as Margaret and her siblings called her.

Heather had it all at the ripe age of 23. She actually graduated college. Had a full time career. Was constantly traveling whenever she wasn’t working and had the typical lacrosse playing boyfriend who came from money. Heather always seemed to know the men with money.

Margaret on the other hand never cared about that sort of thing. She was always looking for love. Real, true, pure, passionate love. The kind that Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy had.

Margaret loved her books or she did.

She had not picked up a book since having children. She had bought some, along the way hoping to rebuild her library that her husband had destroyed.

“…Margaret…. Are you ok? You in there?” Heather asked sheepishly.

Margaret snapped back to reality, the salt air once again filling her lungs.

“Ye..yeah” Margaret stammered.

“Sorry, I am just uhm, I’m exhausted from the drive.”

Heather looked at her like everyone else did. With pity. Margaret knew the look. She had known about it longer than she had liked to admit.

“Well, come here!” Heather whispered as she pulled Margaret in for a hug.

“It’s been too long! Look at you! Everyone just can’t wait to see you again. I don’t think anyone actually slept a wink.”

A smile began to slip up on Margaret. It was nice to be missed. Nice to be here. She had been secluded from everyone for so long that nothing felt truly real for her in that moment. It was then that she could hear it - the faint sound of waves crashing. She felt as if her senses were slowly coming back to her.

“Why don’t you go for a walk and stretch your legs out and I will run up and get everyone to come help get the kids and your stuff?”

“Oh, I don’t know… maybe I should wake them and get everyone situated. They haven’t seen everyone in so long I don’t want them to be frightened. They have already gone through so much in the last few hours and I -“

Heather cut her off, holding her perfectly manicured hand up.

“Nonsense. I don’t think anyone would forgive you if you didn’t go out there.” Her head nodded towards the water.

“Look, they aren’t going to wake up right this second by the looks of it. I’ll stay right here and watch them. You go down and take five minutes before they all bombard you. Dad is just dying to see Layla. And mom, well, she went crazy and she bought a bunch of shit for them she can’t wait to show them.”

Margaret looked out at the waves hesitantly. She knew once she went out she wouldn’t want to come back. That’s just what the ocean did to her. It called her. It needed her as much as Margaret needed it.

“Goooooooo. They will be fine. I promise. Just go dip your toes in.”

Margaret sighed.

She took one more look at her babies and directed her gaze at the water and began to walk before her real journey would begin.