Twice in a Lifetime. Marta Perry

into his career, determined to take good care of them.

      But he hadn’t been able to protect Jennifer from the cancer that stole her away, and now he had to find a way of doing all the things she’d have done with Lindsay.

      Maybe because he was distracted, he tossed the ball too low, and Georgia grabbed it. She held it aloft triumphantly. “Lindsay and I are going to get you now.”

      He moved to the middle, and she tossed the ball to his daughter. Biding his time, he waited until Georgia got a little too confident, then leaped for the ball.

      He started to pull it down when Georgia jumped, batting at the ball. She almost got it, lost her footing and went splashing down into the water.

      He caught her arm and pulled her to her feet. She surfaced laughing, water streaming down her face, her head a riot of curls. He took hold of her other arm to steady her until she got her balance.

      Her gaze met his, the brown eyes just as velvety as he’d imagined they might be. She seemed to glow with life and vitality. Her gaze grew wider, more vulnerable, and for an instant the world compressed into the sunlight, the sea and Georgia.

      “Who was he?” The question came out before his brain was in gear. “The man you were hugging the other morning. Your fiancé?”

      “My brother. Adam.” She didn’t seem to question his right to know. “How did you know about my fiancé?”

      In answer he held up her left hand, water sheeting off it. The white line was growing fainter after several days at the shore, but it was still visible.

      “Your grandmother mentioned you were engaged but the ring isn’t there now.”

      She nodded. “I don’t expect to be seeing him here. Or anywhere.”

      Good. That was what he wanted to say. But why should it make any difference to him who she hugged?

      He fought to focus on business. “We need to get together to make some plans.” He said the words quietly, glancing toward Miz Callie. “Soon.”

      Georgia’s face tightened a little, but she nodded. “Right. I can come over this evening if you want. After Lindsay goes to bed.”

      He almost asked her to come to the office, but that would seem foolish when they were neighbors. He couldn’t let his actions be affected by…well, by the attraction that had blindsided him, like a wave crashing into him when he wasn’t looking. Attraction to Georgia was a mistake, best ignored.

      “Around eight-thirty, then.”

      Lindsay chose that moment to hurl the ball at them with all her might, cutting off anything else he might have said.

      He turned away. Georgia did, too. But he sensed that she, too, was aware that things had shifted between them in some incalculable way.

      Chapter Four

      Someone who hadn’t grown up here might find it scary to be walking on the beach at night. Not Georgia. She used a shielded flashlight through the dunes, but when she reached the flat expanse of sand, she switched it off. The nearly full moon traced a silvery path across the waves, so distinct that when she was a child, she’d imagined that if only she were brave enough, she could walk on it all the way to the horizon and beyond.

      She knew better now, but that didn’t detract from the beauty. Miz Callie’s favorite psalm surfaced in her mind, like a dolphin breaking through the waves.

      When I look at the Heavens, which Thou hast created, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained…

      She tilted her head back to study the sweep of the stars. She felt small in the face of that vastness. Insignificant. And wasn’t that what the psalm went on to say?

      What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visiteth him? Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.

      The words created a space of peace in her heart, like the walk on the beach. The distance between Miz Callie’s house and Matt’s place gave her time to think about what she would say to him. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to think of much except those moments in the surf earlier.

      Where had that instant wave of attraction come from? It was crazy. Neither of them wanted that. What was she supposed to do now—pretend it hadn’t happened?

      The night, in its stillness, didn’t provide an answer, but the murmur of the surf soothed away the edge of her anxiety. She was worrying over nothing. Matt would be as eager to forget it as she was.

      Crossing the dunes to Matt’s deck, she slipped on the shoes she’d been carrying and walked up the steps to find him waiting for her.

      “I saw you coming down the beach.” He gestured to a chair, waited until she took it, and sat down next to her.

      She perched on the edge of the chair, too aware of his nearness to relax.

      Even in the dim light, she could see his eyebrows lift. “You look as if you’re ready to take flight. Is something wrong?”

      “No, not at all.” If she couldn’t convince herself, at least she could try convincing him. “Is Lindsay asleep?”

      “She conks out pretty quickly. I guess she wears herself out running around on the beach all day.”

      “I remember that feeling.”

      He’d spend most of his evenings alone, once Lindsay went to bed. That must be lonely.

      “Well, to business.” He drained his iced-tea glass and set it on a wide plank of the deck. “We need a plan of action, don’t you think?”

      “I suppose.” Tension grabbed the back of her neck. “The trouble is—well, truthfully, I don’t see how this can succeed. I’m afraid Miz Callie will end up being hurt if she can’t clear Ned’s name. And if she goes ahead with her plans anyway…” She trailed off.

      He rubbed the back of his neck, as if he felt the same stress she did. “Will there really be that much bad feeling after all this time?”

      She gave him a pitying look. “You don’t get it, do you? Charleston—old Charleston, anyway—is a close community for all its size. I don’t suppose anyone will start a petition against her plans, although that could happen. But people she’s known all her life will disapprove, even be angry about it.”

      “Maybe she figures that won’t bother her.”

      “Don’t kid yourself. She may say that she wants to live to please herself, but I know her. She’ll be lost if people turn against her. Lost.”

      “You know her better than I do.” He paused, his face a study in line and shadow in the dim light. “But as her attorney, I have to follow her directions.”

      She hadn’t known him long, but she sensed instinctively that he wouldn’t back away from his duty to a client. “Any ideas?”

      “Miz Callie must have some reason for her belief in Edward Bodine’s innocence. You’re in the best position to find out what that is.”

      “I guess so. I tried to find out what she remembers about his leaving, but it’s not much. Just finding Granddad crying because Ned had run away, leaving a note saying he wasn’t coming back, but that’s all she knows. Maybe it was all Granddad knew. After all, he was just a kid then, too.”

      “If he left a note saying he was going, there was no question of accident or foul play, apparently.”

      She blinked. “That hadn’t even occurred to me. But no, I suppose not. I can try to get her talking more about her memories. There might be something we can follow up on.”

      He nodded. “Good. And there have to be records of Edward Bodine somewhere. I’ll start there, see what that tells us.”

      “If there’s something else I can