“Oh . . . that’s good. For a second I thought something awful happened. Like someone had attacked you or something.”

Theresa brushed away a strand of hair that had blown onto her face and smiled at her concern. “No, the letter just really hit me. It’s silly, I know. I shouldn’t have been so emotional. And I’m sorry for giving you a scare.”

“Oh, pooh,” Deanna said, shrugging. “Nothing to be sorry about. I’m just glad you’re okay.” She paused for a moment. “You said the letter made you cry? Why? What did it say?”

Theresa wiped her eyes, handed the letter to Deanna, and walked over to the wrought-iron table where Deanna had been sitting. Still feeling a bit ridiculous about crying, she did her best to compose herself.

Deanna read the letter slowly, and when she finished, she looked up at Theresa. Her eyes too were watering. It wasn’t just her, after all.

“It’s . . . it’s beautiful,” Deanna finally said. “It’s one of the most touching things I’ve ever read.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“And you found it washed up on the beach? When you were running?”

Theresa nodded.

“I don’t know how it could have washed up there. The bay is sheltered from the rest of the ocean, and I’ve never heard of Wrightsville Beach.”

“i don’t know, either, but it looked like it had washed up last night. I almost walked by it at first before I noticed what it was.”

Deanna ran her finger over the writing and paused for a moment. “I wonder who they are. And why was it sealed in a bottle?”

“I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

The fact was that Theresa was indeed curious. Immediately after reading it, she had read it again, then a third time. What would it be like, she mused, to have someone love her that way?

“A little. But so what? There’s no way we’ll ever know.”