stay for six weeks. I have an assignment at the end of the month.” The thought of being in one place—in this place—for the entire summer had her stomach clenching.
“I need you,” Vera repeated. “We all need you.”
Lainey focused her attention on Pita, still resting next to her mother. The dog met her gaze and cocked its head as if to say, “If you bolt, I’m coming, too.”
Julia leaned forward across the bed. “Are you okay?”
Lainey was many things, but “okay” didn’t top the list. “You were trying for a baby? Mom never said …”
“I wasn’t.” A tiny crease marred Julia’s smooth brow. “Not exactly. I’m kind of putting the cart before the horse, but Jeff and I will get married as soon as his work settles down.”
She’d never met Julia’s anthropology professor boyfriend, but the reports Vera had insisted on giving her over the past three years hadn’t been positive. She knew it wasn’t right to pick a fight just so she could channel her mixed-up emotions, but it didn’t stop her. “Too busy for a wedding,” she answered slowly. “Sure, I get it.”
Julia’s shoulders stiffened, but to Lainey’s shock she didn’t come out swinging. “The baby is a surprise, but a welcome one. It just sort of … happened.”
Right. Just happened. Since childhood, everything in life had come easy for her sister—friends, grades, their parents’ approval. Ethan Daniels falling in love with Julia as Lainey, nursing a wicked crush on him, watched from the shadows. Why should a baby be different?
“I can’t blow off my assignment …” she began.
Vera shook her head, the movement jerky. “You stay here. This is for Dad, his memory. Need you, Melanie.”
Lainey stared at her mother, wondering how she knew the exact thing to say to cut into Lainey’s well-guarded heart. A million excuses ran through her mind. A thousand rationales why she should walk out and not look back.
She knew what it meant to take this on but understood the shame of leaving even better. The last time she’d left Brevia had been her wedding day. When she couldn’t bear the thought of marrying a man she knew didn’t love her. Of never being able to have the family she’d craved since childhood. Yes, Lainey had run away once. Made a career of circling the globe in search of the perfect photo, the constant travel required of her job helping her to pretend her life had purpose.
Her mother met her gaze. The silence stretched so long Julia finally broke it. “If you can’t get the time off, I’m sure I’ll be able to—”
“I’ll stay.”
Lainey wondered what this decision would cost her emotionally. How long it would take her to get her life back on track. But she couldn’t say no to Vera. Lainey’s relationship with Ethan had torn her family apart, and this might be her only chance to mend fences. She had no choice but to try.
A lopsided smile stretched across her mother’s face. She reached out and placed her hand on top of Lainey’s. Here comes the emotion, the gratitude. She would stay, but she wouldn’t let herself get emotionally involved. This was a final payment for past mistakes, she told herself. Nothing more. Lainey ratcheted up her mental defenses at the same time the little girl inside her waited anxiously.
“Get coffee,” her mother said. “You look tired. Lots of work now.”
Lainey shook her head. So much for the tender reunion.
Wasn’t that typical and one heck of a welcome home.
Lainey climbed the back porch steps of her mother’s house later that night. Pita sniffed the rosebushes that ran the length of the house.
“You can’t imagine how much I don’t want to be here.”
The dog nudged her nose into Lainey’s knee.
“Please don’t pee in Vera’s garden. She’ll kill us both.”
She paused at the top, running one hand over the whitewashed post. How many times had she come tearing out of the house for the woods around back, hand sliding along the railing so she didn’t lose her balance?
Too many to count. She’d felt at peace exploring the thick underbrush of the forest—as much of a loner then as she was now. Things were easier that way, not so much mess.
The sky took on a pinkish cast at twilight. A brief summer storm had blown in a few hours earlier, tempering the blazing heat but sending the humidity so high she could practically see the cloud of thick air that surrounded her.
As a photojournalist, she’d traveled all over the world, from Antarctica to some of the thickest jungles of the Amazon. Nothing overwhelmed her senses like a summer night in North Carolina.
Shaking off nostalgia, she reached for the door. Through the four-pane window she saw a man seated at the old trestle table, his large hands cradling the rounded belly of the woman in front of him: Julia.
Her heart thundered in her chest as memories and long-buried pain rushed in.
Ethan had no way of knowing Lainey had been in love with him since she was barely more than a girl. He’d started dating Julia in high school and they’d been Brevia’s perfect couple. Everyone had been shocked when Julia left for New York during Ethan’s first year of med school, taking her big dreams and his heart with her.
Devastated, he’d turned to Lainey, who was at the same university campus, as a friend. Very quickly it led to more, and Lainey couldn’t resist—being in Ethan’s arms made her feel like all her dreams were coming true.
She’d thought it was safe because her sister had ended things and moved on with her life. Only when Lainey had become pregnant a few months later and Julia returned to rekindle her relationship with Ethan did Lainey see how stupid and selfish she’d been. It didn’t matter that Julia and Ethan had been broken up or that Lainey had secretly loved him for years. She should never have given in to her heart.
All hell had broken loose in their family as Ethan chose his duty to Lainey over his history with her sister. Ultimately, Lainey’s love story was still doomed.
Julia had left town again after finding out Lainey was pregnant with Ethan’s baby. She had no idea what Lainey had lost or the emotional and physical pain she’d suffered.
Lainey thought she’d gotten over the sorrow, but the image in front of her was exactly what she’d imagined for herself. To watch the moment unfold between Julia and Ethan was simply too much. She threw open the door.
Pita scampered over to Ethan, resting her head against his thigh. Lainey narrowed her eyes at the unfaithful mutt.
“Sorry to interrupt …”
“You didn’t.” Julia moved to the far end of the kitchen. “The baby’s active. I wanted Ethan—someone—to feel how hard he kicks.” She stepped closer. “You want to try?”
Lainey backed against the doorframe like Julia had pulled a knife on her. “No!” Her hands shook and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Not now. It’s been a long day.”
“Sure, I understand.” Julia looked confused but busied herself with arranging a bowl of apples on the center island. “How was Mom when you left?”
“Sleeping.”
“She’s happy you’re here.” Julia laughed without humor. “She hated the idea that I’d try to run the adoption fair and screw it up.”
Before Lainey could answer, Ethan’s chair scraped on the wood floor. “Do you have bags in the car? I’ll bring them in.”
“It’s unlocked.”
As he stepped past her out the back door, she came farther into the kitchen, walking back in time. The walls were painted the same warm yellow she remembered, and a short valance with bright