Prologue
March 2008 – Savannah, Georgia
Zoe Green lived in perpetual silence.
It wasn’t a quiet she was born with but rather the painful outcome of an accident involving her tired father, darkness, and a winding road in the middle of nowhere.
She stood at the back pasture, staring out over fields no longer being planted. The memory of her dad baling hay on his tractor was something that no longer seemed real.
Her mother and older sister struggled to pretend nothing was wrong. In the strange bubble of make-believe the three women existed in together, Zoe’s father and little sister were still very much alive and her hearing was intact.
They didn’t discuss the events of that fateful night when she was sixteen. No one mentioned the names of the dead.
When she started classes for sign language, Zoe’s sessions were glossed over as if she had an appointment for a manicure.
Their forced cheerfulness was brutal.
Movement from the corner of her eye made Zoe turn. One of her sister’s high school friends smiled as she approached.
Three years older, Tiffany Dane was a true stunner. She was the prettiest woman Zoe had ever seen, even with having a sister who was unanimously consideredmodel material.
Stopping at her side, the blonde used sign language to ask, “How are you, Zoe?”
Smiling, she replied, “I always forget you know sign. You’re the only one around here who does.”
“I learned for that little girl I used to babysit, remember?” Zoe nodded. Glancing back at the farmhouse, Tiffany frowned. “Meg and your mom still haven’t learned?”
Zoe shook her head.
“In all this time…” Leaning against the fence with a shake of her head, she inhaled deeply enough for it to be visible. “I have an idea. I think it might work for you, too.”
“An idea?”
“You need to start over.”
No kidding. Zoe asked, “What do you mean?”
“My favorite family is here. I love them and they love me, but this isn’t where I belong. I don’t want to stay for the wrong reasons and get stuck.”
“Is it the breakup?”
Tiffany recently ended things with a foolish young man who couldn’t keep it in his pants but didn’t want to give up the prettiest girl around.
Zoe had a similar experience shortly after losing her hearing. Living in a small town, it made things awkward. Such a confined environment wasn’t a good recipe formoving on. That’s what she wasexpectedto do but she didn’t know how.
Tiffany nodded. “He might have a little to do with it. I hate running into the people I went to high school with because they look so damn smug.” She grimaced. “I thought I’d be married by now but I’m actually glad I’m not.”
“I’m sorry,” Zoe signed.
“I hate how much of an idiot I was but…the worst part is that everyone around here knows.”
Zoe felt a little pain shoot through her heart. Losing her hearing and then her long-time boyfriend still made her tear up. “I know that feeling.”
“I know you do. That’s why I think you’ll like my idea.” She paused. “I’ve been thinking about moving to Vegas. Give myself a couple years to try out the dancing thing.”
“You’re an amazing dancer.”
“Thanks.”