So Dark The Night. Margaret Daley

she’s retired?”

      “Only from the army. She writes children’s books now.”

      Conflicting images flowed through her mind—none of them of someone who she thought could protect her. “If your aunt’s forty-six, how old are you? Twenty?”

      “Thirty-six, so she’s more like a big sister than an aunt, and she won’t let me call her Aunt Grace. Just Grace.”

      His answer sent relief through her and she wasn’t sure why. “I still don’t understand how a stranger would want to help me.”

      “You’ll understand when you meet Grace. My daughters practically live over at her house. They think she’s cool.”

      “Daughters? You’re married?” Of course, he would be. Why would she think otherwise and why had she bothered to ask?

      “My wife died four years ago. I have fifteen-year-old twins who have tested this father’s patience on more than one occasion.”

      Exasperation roughened his voice, masking his Southern drawl. Emma laughed. “That’s what teenage girls are put on this earth for.”

      “To test fathers’ patience?”

      “To be exasperating.” Memories of her own father, absent from her teenage years, flooded her mind and all laughter faded.

      “Then they have fulfilled their calling. So what do you say? Want to spend some time in Crystal Springs recovering?”

      Thinking about the blank pages of her mind chilled her to the marrow of her bones. Whom should she trust?