she leaned against the counter , squeezed her eyes shut , and remembered the better days : the day she met tom , when allison was eighteen and he was forty , at a political rally sponsored by her father ; their honeymoon in the keys four years later , and the feel of the sand beneath her feet as she strolled along the beach with the man who would keep her safe for the rest of her life ; the day shelly was born , when she first looked into the babys striking blue eyes and knew this child instantly loved her more than anyone else .