“So the rumors are true—Lily Morrow coming back to Broadway to revive her Tony-winning performance? Big buzz in my world.”

“She’ll do it if I’m with him, and I can do the bulk of my work anywhere. Or I can use a studio in Monterey, Carmel, San Francisco. I can make it work.”

Would make it work, she corrected. She had the wheel; she chose her own turns now.

“And lately, I’ve been missing California. I feel like it’s time to maybe change directions.”

She angled her head. “Seeing you, talking like this, it’s kind of closed a chapter—in a good way.” When the waiter came by, asked if they wanted another round, Cate shook her head. “I’ve got prep to do. I’ve really got to go. I’m so glad we did this, Noah.”

“Me, too.” He reached over for her hand. “You were a key point for me, Cate. A good chapter in my life.”

When she left him, she felt lighter. And knew as she walked home, as New York swarmed around her, she could leave without a single regret.

Because she had work, Cate flew into San Francisco. She’d forgotten how chilly November in San Francisco could be.

After a long, fraught decision-making process, she’d shipped ahead most of her possessions she’d opted to keep. Another selection went into storage for maybe later.

The rest she sold or gave to friends.

She’d thought it would make her feel lighter. Instead she felt weirdly empty, which wasn’t the same at all.

Because she definitely wanted her own car and had already researched what would suit her best, she spent a day test driving, negotiating, and buying a nice little hybrid SUV. Not the convertible of her teenage dreams, she thought as she waited while the bellman at her hotel loaded it up.

She still had time to fulfill that dream.

Getting out of San Francisco put her very rusty, rarely used driving skills to the test. One she nearly failed twice on the steep hills, then again when she hit the twists of Highway 1.

To calm those rusty driver’s nerves, she turned the radio up, did her best to mimic Gaga. She had decent pipes—not Gaga level, but who did? Still, she could sell it when called on.

And the views—the wild heights, the churning sea, the climbing cliffs. Yes, she’d missed this, somewhere deep inside. How strange it was, she realized, to be called back and find it a kind of coming home.

Even a year before she would have said, without hesitation, New York was home. Years before that, she would have said Ireland.

Didn’t it make her lucky to finally understand she could put her heart into so many homes? And to find herself absolutely ready to come back to this one.

The thin November fog crawling in as she climbed only made it all the more beautiful.

When she passed the ranch road to the Coopers’, she thought of them, all of them. She still kept in touch, but hadn’t come back to Big Sur in years.

Maybe she’d bake some soda bread and take it over to them sometime soon.

Key points, she thought. They more than qualified as one of hers.

When she drove onto the peninsula, she felt nothing but excitement. She stopped at the gate, started to roll down the window for the intercom.

But the gates opened for her.

Video surveillance, she knew, and she’d described the car, in detail, after she’d bought it.

She climbed the road, thought of the beach, the rocks, the house, the everything.

The second gate—installed after her kidnapping—opened as well.

When she crested the last rise, her grandparents stood together under the portico with the house and all its fascinating levels behind them.

She nearly forgot to put the car in park, but avoided disaster before she jumped out and ran over to hug them both.

Lily’s hair, still redder than red, waved the flames around her face in a new style. Hugh, with his trim little gray beard—a new style as well.

“We’ve been watching for you.” Lily all but bubbled it. “Since you texted you were maybe an hour away. Come in, come in, don’t worry about your things. All taken care of.”

“How are those pins, Grandpa?”

He did a little soft-shoe. “Don’t you worry about my pins. How was the drive?”

“A little nerve-racking at first. It’s been awhile. But it comes back to you. Oh, everything looks so good. I’ve missed a fire in the fireplace, and this light. And—Oh, Consuela!”

She’d known the longtime cook had relocated with them as head housekeeper/cook now, but seeing her just made Cate’s heart swell.

Beaming, Consuela rolled in a tray. “Bienvenida a casa, mi niña.” She teared up a little at Cate’s embrace. “Now you’ll have some wine, some food, and sit with your grandparents. Your grandfather doesn’t sit enough.”

“The pair of them would have me propped up from dawn to dusk, then flat out from dusk to dawn.”

Consuela only clucked her tongue, then, after stroking Cate’s cheek, slipped out of the room.

“I won’t say no to that wine. And look at that fruit. There’s nothing like fresh California fruit. You two, sit, let me serve this up. I want to work out some kinks from the drive.”

She poured wine, brought over the little plates, the fruit and cheese. Then paused just to look at the sea, the sky, the roll of lawn to the drop of cliff.

“You remember how beautiful,” Cate murmured. “But memory isn’t like seeing. It can’t capture it, not all the way. Here’s to Liam and Rosemary, their love, their vision, their gift to all of us.”

“Without them?” Hugh clinked glasses. “None of this, no you, no me.”

Cate tried a slice of mango, sighed. “And man, this is really good. It’s another world here.” She perched on the arm of his chair. “I’m ready for another world. I started dreaming about this house, this place.”

Hugh rubbed a hand on her thigh. “Good dreams.”

“Yes. Good dreams. Jigsaw puzzles and hunting shells on the beach, barking sea lions, waking up to the ocean, listening to Grandda’s stories. He was so full of stories. I knew I wanted to come back, that I could.”

“We want you to stay, but we don’t want you to feel obliged,” Lily added.

“I want to stay, and you’d better have my room ready because now you’re stuck with me. Did you notice I bought a car?”

Hugh paused as he reached for the tray. “You bought the one out front?”

“Yesterday. That’s no rental. Us California girls need our own wheels. And I may just buy me a hot convertible next summer.”

“You always wanted one,” Hugh murmured.

“Now’s the time, finally. I’ve looked into studios in Monterey and Carmel, and I figure to talk you into letting me soundproof one of the big closets upstairs. I started in a closet, and it worked just fine. So listen up, I’m home to stay.”

She reached for a sea salt cracker, topped it with some goat cheese. And grinned at her grandfather. “Too much Irish in me not to pay attention to dreams. I’m going to be looking out for you, pal of mine, while our Broadway babe hits the footlights again.”

“Looking out for me,” Hugh snorted.

“Damn right, so get used to it. I’d have come back either way, because dreams. But add broken leg—soft-shoe aside—and Mame? Too many signs pointing here for me to ignore. And just so you know, I’d started researching those studios before you decided to fall off that horse, cowboy.”