Free The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs

overruling her, “is design a Web site for you. That’s what I do for a living. I’d consider it a privilege.”
    “That’s incredibly generous of you,” Grace said. “But I don’t have the first idea of what I would do with a Web site.”
    “It can be for anything. Your family, your kids, your husband.”
    “My husband already has a site. It’s called navy-dot-mil.”
    “Oh, my. Well, I can’t really compete with that. But something for you, personally. We can create a Web site for your hobbies—knitting, gardening, songwriting, what have you.”
    “My hobbies?” Grace grinned. “Most days, that would be car-pooling and family finance.”
    “Give it some thought.” Marcia handed her a business card. “Call me. It’ll be fun, you’ll see. I really do owe you, big-time.”
    Grace was quiet as they drove away. On the seat beside her lay the various receipts and flyers she’d collected. She had two things to show for her day. Two impossible dreams. A perfect body and a home of her own.

CHAPTER SIX
    After the day’s final briefing, which was anything but brief, Steve Bennett knew the exact date and time he’d be leaving his family. Again. Sure, he was a patriot; he’d spent his career serving his country. Yet he felt alternately harried, preoccupied and distracted by his myriad duties. A part of him missed the glory days of flying, the constant brushes with danger and the heady rush of cheating death. But he was a family man now, and he’d reached the stage of his career where he was ready for his own command.
    And that didn’t happen without compromise. Even if it meant putting up with rule-book blowhards like Mason Crowther, his immediate superior.
    When he walked through the door, he deep-sixed the burdens of the day, shutting his eyes and inhaling the smell of baking chicken. Like magic, the aromas and sounds of home lifted his spirits. Then he took off his cap and tossed it Frisbee-style to a hook on the hall tree—a little stunt that drove Crowther nuts and often prompted him to remind Steve that replacing a damaged cover would set him back two hundred bucks.
    Feeling decidedly better, he went in search of his wife.
    Grace stood at the counter, tossing a salad. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Smells great,” he said. “Do you need some help?”
    “No, thanks. We’ll eat just as soon as you get washed up. The kids want to go out tonight.”
    He aimed a wounded look at Emma, who was setting the table. “You’re ditching us?”
    “It’s the last Saturday night of the summer. Our last night of freedom.”
    He washed his hands at the sink. “Yeah? So what are you up to?”
    Emma shrugged in a way that made him grit his teeth. His elder daughter was not uncommunicative, but she definitely had her own set of private signals and gestures.
    “Translation, please,” he said, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. He knew this was a particularly difficult move, uprooting the kids for their senior year and thrusting them into yet another “hostile environment,” as they liked to call it.
    Steve knew it wasn’t his fault. But it sure as hell wasn’t his family’s, either.
    “Some of the kids are going down to the beach at Mueller’s Point.”
    “Bonfire and fireworks,” Brian added, ambling into the kitchen. Without being asked, he started filling the water glasses from a chilled pitcher.
    “Excellent,” called Katie from the living room. “That means I can go, too.”
    Both Emma and Brian snapped to attention. “In your dreams, dork,” Brian said. “It’s bad enough I have to drag Emma along—”
    “Drag Emma along?” she said with an arch look. “Hey, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have any friends at all.”
    “If it weren’t for me,” Grace said, tapping her arm with a spatula, “you wouldn’t have any dinner.”
    They all sat down and Steve asked the blessing and then wondered why he bothered to ask. This family was all he needed and more. This