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Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The New Girl
The moving truck pulled away, leaving Molly Corrigan standing on the cracked sidewalk with a box of books in her arms and salt wind tangling her red hair. Behind her, the little blue cottage looked tired, its paint peeling like sunburned skin.
"Well," her mother said, forcing brightness into her voice, "this is home now."
Molly didn't answer. Home was supposed to be their apartment in Portland, with Dad down the hall and the sound of city buses rumbling past her window. Not this tiny fishing village where seagulls screamed overhead and everything smelled like low tide.
Seabrook wasn't even on most maps. Just a cluster of weathered houses, a general store, a fish market, and a harbor full of boats that had seen better days. The kind of place where nothing ever changed and nobody ever left.
Except her grandfather had left, a long time ago. Mom mentioned it once on the drive here—how Grandpa Charlie grew up in Seabrook before moving away and never looking back. He'd died before Molly was born, so she'd never known him. Just old photographs of a tall man with kind eyes, standing on the deck of a sailboat.
"You'll love it here," Mom continued, hauling a suitcase up the porch steps. "Fresh air, ocean views, a real community. And there's a sailing club for kids your age! The Junior Sailors, they call themselves."
Molly's stomach tightened. She'd never sailed anything in her life.
