Abandon the Dark. Marta Perry

Lainey shook her head. “It seemed to me you were going to be an astronaut. Or run a dude ranch out West.”

      “That summer must have been the end of my cowgirl phase,” Meredith said, brown eyes smiling at the memory. “It finally occurred to me that I was afraid of horses, something that limited my cowgirl ambitions. As I recall, you were going to live in Paris and be an artist. What happened?”

      “I discovered I wasn’t that talented.” Funny, how easy it was to admit that to them. Maybe the bond they’d formed then was more durable than she would have expected. “I ended up working for an advertising agency.” At least, that’s what she had been doing. Technically, at the moment she was unemployed.

      “Life seldom turns out the way we dream it will when we’re ten,” Rachel said. “But you were a wonderful artist. We still have the scrapbook from that summer with your drawings.”

      Meredith glanced at her, frowning almost in warning, it seemed, making Lainey wonder why that would be a touchy subject.

      “I’d like to see it sometime.” That seemed the polite thing to say, although Lainey would have to admit that her memories of that summer were rather hazy. “It was about some story we made up, wasn’t it?”

      “Something like that,” Meredith agreed. “Have you been to the hospital yet? I was there yesterday, but the nurses weren’t very forthcoming about Rebecca’s condition.”

      “That was nice of you.” Lainey was reminded that Rebecca had an entire life here, with relatives and friends who were all probably wondering about her. “I don’t think they can predict very much about how much she’ll recover. She was still...”

      She lost the thread when the cat, apparently finished with his dinner, appeared in the kitchen doorway. He stood for a moment, assessing them, and then crossed the room to jump lightly onto Lainey’s lap and settle there.

      “You have a cat.” Rachel reached out to run her fingers lightly along the glossy back. “My daughter, Mandy, will fall in love. She’s been asking if she can get a kitten, but since she already has a puppy, I think that’s enough.”

      “She’s welcome to come and visit, but I can’t guarantee the cat will be here. It’s not mine. I supposed it was Aunt Rebecca’s, but Jake Evans said she didn’t have a cat, so I guess it belongs to a neighbor.”

      “That’s odd.” Meredith’s forehead furrowed. “I can’t think of anyone on the block with a black cat.”

      “Probably a stray,” Rachel said. “Rebecca has such a tender heart that she wouldn’t turn it away. He’s a handsome creature, isn’t he?”

      Lainey’s cell phone rang, and her hands clutched in the cat’s fur. With an annoyed glance, he leaped to the floor and began washing himself.

      “If you want to get that, please go ahead,” Meredith said, obviously surprised that she wasn’t answering.

      Lainey pulled the phone from her pocket. A quick glance told her that it was an unfamiliar number. She clicked it off. “It’s nothing important. I’ll deal with it later.”

      There must have been something odd in her tone, because both Meredith and Rachel were looking at her with varying degrees of puzzlement.

      Well, it didn’t matter what they thought, did it? Much as she enjoyed seeing them again after twenty years, that was all—just satisfying a passing curiosity. She wasn’t going to be here long enough to make friends.

      CHAPTER THREE

      JAKE HELPED HIMSELF to coffee and lifted his mug in a mock toast to his father. “Here’s to a better day today than yesterday.”

      Dad raised his eyebrows, and the result was like looking in a mirror. Mom always said that he’d look exactly like his father when he grew older. If so, that wasn’t such a bad reflection, he figured. Dad was still lean, still fit, with just a bit of gray at the temples to add distinction.

      “I take it things didn’t go as well with Rebecca Stoltzfus’s relatives as you’d hoped?” As always, Dad was careful not to tread on his cases, but their ritual morning coffee on reaching the office had become a time when Jake could air anything that bothered him.

      “Not exactly.” He pondered for a moment. How much to say? Dad was safe, of course, and as senior partner, had a right to know. “Rebecca’s relatives might have reason to be worried about her decision to leave the great-niece in control.”

      Dad set his mug down, frowning. “Are you saying the great-niece might make decisions that aren’t in Rebecca’s best interest?”

      An image of the tenderness with which Lainey had bent over Rebecca’s hospital bed slid into Jake’s mind. “I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” He realized he was falling into the careful phrasing his father always used, and he couldn’t suppress an interior grin. “Lainey—the great-niece—seems to care about Rebecca. But she hasn’t been back to Deer Run in twenty years. How can she know what Rebecca would want in this situation?”

      “What did Rebecca say when you raised that point with her?” Dad didn’t seem to doubt that Jake would have covered all the bases with his client.

      “She insisted that Lainey’s good heart would help her make the right decisions. And when I pointed out that she’d only known her as a ten-year-old, she just smiled and said character was as plain at ten as it was at twenty or thirty.” He shrugged. “So what could I do?”

      His father mused, the fine lines around his eyes deepening. “You had to do as your client wished, of course, but it’s an unsatisfactory situation all around. I’m sure we all hope Rebecca’s condition improves, but if it doesn’t...”

      “Exactly.” Jake gestured with his mug, realized the coffee was in danger of sloshing out, and set it down. “That’s what has me losing sleep over it. As far as I can tell, Lainey Colton knows little or nothing about the lifestyle Rebecca led. What if she should decide to slap Rebecca into a nursing home, away from the rest of her family and friends? Or what if she decided to bail out...go back to her normal life and ignore what’s happening here?”

      That was the thing that bugged him most. Lainey was such a fish out of water here. She must be longing to go back where she belonged.

      “Well, if this young woman is going to walk away from her responsibilities, it’s incumbent upon you to gain her cooperation in straightening out the question of the power of attorney. A family fight over it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests.”

      Dad, at his most professional, was looking at him as if he expected action. Right.

      Jake straightened his tie and checked to be sure his keys were in his pocket.

      “I’d better talk to Lainey Colton before I do anything else. It’s time she made a decision.”

      Aware of his father’s gaze on him, Jake headed for the door. With any luck, he’d catch Lainey before she left for the hospital.

      Rebecca’s house was just three blocks away, so he decided to walk. Jake headed down Main Street, relieved to be out and moving. The worst thing about being an attorney was the amount of time he had to spend sitting at a desk.

      Deer Run looked its best on a sunny October morning. Chrysanthemums bloomed in pots or window boxes in front of most of the businesses, and the maples that were planted at frequent intervals along the street were already turning color.

      Several kids from the high school were clearly enjoying a morning out, painting Halloween scenes on the storefront windows for the annual art contest. He paused to watch three girls painting a witch sailing across a stormy night sky. When they noticed him watching, they nudged each other and giggled.

      He moved on. Only buckets or planters of mums decorated the fronts of the Amish businesses like Miller’s Shop. The Amish didn’t observe Halloween, considering it a pagan idea. Still, the town