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Chapter One

Sea Breeze, Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina

July was said to be the hottest hty Southern summers, Marietta Muir, or Mareed She delicately dabbed at her upper lip and forehead with her handkerchief, then waved to shoo off a pesky s But being out on Sullivan’s Island, sitting in the shade of a live oak tree, sipping iced tea, and waiting for the occasional offshore breeze was, for her, the very definition of suhty limbs so far and wide, Marietta felt cradled in its protective e, so thick and cloyingly scented with jas A gust of wind frorass and cooled theher neck

She set the needlepoint pattern on her lap to reetting harder and harder to see her stitches, she thought with a sigh Glancing at Lucille beside her on the screened porch of the guesthouse that Lucille called horass basket, her strong hands weaving the fragile strands into the pattern, sewing each row tight with palrass lay in her lap, while a generous heap sat at her feet in a plastic bag, along with another bag of long-leaf pine needles

Seeing her longtirasses into an object of beauty e was this suhters with Sea Breeze once again Her suirls

Maer Dora was thirty-six, Carson thirty-three, and Harper twenty-eight—woether they had been close, as sisters should be Over the years, however, they’d becoers than sisters Half-sisters, Marietta corrected herself, shuddering at the nuance of the ter a father, the women’s bond was somehow less Sisters were sisters and blood was blood, after all She had succeeded in corralling all three women to Sea Breeze in June for the summer, but here it was, only early July, and Carson was already off to Florida while Dora was fixing on returning to Suhts set north

“I wonder if Carsonup Her fingersrow after row

Ma how Lucille’s ain Lucille had been hired as her housekeeper so bride in Charleston They’d shared a lifetime of ups and downs, births, deaths, scandals, and joys Now that they were old women, Lucille had become more a confidante than an employee Truth was, Lucille was her closest friend

“I was just wondering the sa,” Ma in to her hotel I hope she won’t be away long”

“She won’t be Carson kno important this summer is to you, and she’ll be back just as soon as she finds out what’s done happened to that dolphin,” Lucille said She lowered her basket to her lap and looked Maht in the eyes “Carson won’t disappoint you You have to have faith”

“I do,” Mah to kno life likes to throrench into even the ht out plans Iher hands in frustration “Who could have foreseen a dolphin tossing all my summer plans applecart-upset?”

Lucille chuckled, a deep and throaty sound “Yes, she surely did That Delphine” Lucille’s smile slipped at the sound of the dolphin’s name “But it weren’t her fault, noas it? I do hope that place in Florida can help the poor thing”

“I do, too For Delphine’s sake, and for Carson’s” She paused “And Nate’s” She orried about how hard Dora’s son had taken the dolphin’s accident Only a young boy, he had put the bla it entangled in all that fishing line In truth, they were all to blame No one more than herself