Page 137 (1/2)

“Thanks” Winona took off her coat and went back toward the sunroom

He sat stiff-backed in the antique white wicker chair by the French doors, with his boots firers lay splayed on his jean-clad thighs; there was the telltale tre beneath his broeat-stained cowboy hat, and even in profile she could see the tension in his jaw

“Hello, Dad,” she said, co forward

He pulled his hat off and set it on his lap, pushing a hand through his hair “You got to stop this, Winona”

She sat down on the plush sofa opposite him and knew this was her chance to ?”

“We ain’t”

“Maybe ere”

“Drop it, Winona People are talking”

Winona got to her feet “That would be what you care about The great Grey family and our precious reputation You’d rather have an innocenta mistake You don’t care about anyone but yourself You never have”

He got to his feet in the gradual, rickety way that had beco frail in his eyes The look he gave her was cold and dark “Don’t you talk to me that way”

“No Don’t you talk to hed, but was afraid it would sound hysterical “Do you kno long I’ve waited to hear you say you were proud of ht on the sharp point of a need that began a lifetioing to happen, is it? And you knohat? I don’t care any with Dallas, and if I discover I’, I’ll live with it, but I won’t spend the rest ofI made a mistake that mattered”

On that, she turned and walked out of her sunroom and went upstairs to her bedroo her fatherway out to the sidewalk toward his truck Without even a backward glance, he drove away

Chapter Twenty-seven

The late winter and early spring of 2008 was one of the wettest on record in Oyster Shores Rain fell alround into a spongy, reen and brown

Winona’s life had changed so nizable Fighting an unspoken battle had had unforeseen consequences