“Did you stop and visit with your grandparents on the way out?”he asked.
“Uh-huh.Texas.They live next to the water.”She took a drink of lemonade.“It’s nice there.I like the beach.Where are your brother and sister?”
“Dani lives in Atlanta.She’s married and has a little girl about four years younger than you.Ty has a construction company in the next town.”
“Dani’s a girl, right?Short for Daniella?”
He nodded.
Billie licked a dab of icing off the corner of her mouth.“Mom knows her.I think they were friends a long time ago.Is there a tree house in the backyard?She talked about that on the drive out.My mom went to school here and everything.”
“I know.”So Jane had mentioned his sister but not him?No surprise in that.After the last time he saw her—
He forced away the memory, refused to acknowledge the coldness that had swept over him or the overpowering scent of flowers and burning candles.
“There’s icing.”She pointed to the chocolate ribbon left on her plate.“Want to split it?”
“You go ahead.”
“Okay.”She swept her finger across the gooey confection, then stuck it in her mouth.“Yummy.”
It seemed easier to concentrate on Billie and ignore the past.He didn’t believe in thinking about things that couldn’t be changed.Choices had been made a long time ago.It didn’t matter anymore.
“What are those for?”She pointed to the copper pots hanging on the far wall.
“Cooking.”
“I’ve never seen pans that color before.”
“Adam, who are you entertaining in the kitchen?I declare, you’ll give our family a bad name.”
Charlene Belle Standing, oftheCarolina Standings as she referred to her family, swept into the kitchen.A bright purple caftan fell in soft folds to the floor.Several bracelets jingled on each wrist.Her hair, still a bright shade of red, had been twisted into an old-fashioned chignon.She was close to sixty, looked forty and acted like she was twenty-five.Or fifteen.
“My, my.And you are?”
Adam rose to his feet.“Charlene, this is Billie.Billie, my favorite aunt, Miss Charlene Standing.”
Her blue eyes snapped at him.“I’m your only aunt, Adam.If I’m not your favorite, then I’ve been doing something terribly wrong.”She moved closer to Billie and stopped on the far side of the island.Diamond rings on three fingers of each hand gleamed in the overhead light.“Child, you look so familiar, but we haven’t met.I would have remembered.”
For the first time since he’d met her, Billie was tongue-tied.She stared at the older woman.
“She’s Jane’s daughter.You remember Jane Southwick?She lived next door.”
Charlene raised one arched brow.“I see.That explains it.You have your mother’s eyes.A different color perhaps, but the shape’s the same.Pretty eyes, I always thought.”
He waited for her to make a comment on his introduction, to call him on his choice of descriptions for Jane.He could have said she was his old girlfriend, or at least a friend of the family.
“Is your hair really that color?”Billie blurted out at last.
“Obviously your tact must come from the other side of the family.Jane was always the most well-mannered child.”
Billie grinned, undaunted.“I’m more trouble than I’m worth, but she loves me, anyway.”
Charlene moved around the island until she was standing next to Billie’s stool.She leaned close and took the girl’s face in her hands.
“I was raised by wolves, you know,” Charlene said.
“Really?”Billie’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
