From Glowing Embers by Emilie Richards Page A

friend, and Gray was delivering her to her mother in Hawaii because decency and compassion demanded it. Now that he knew her a little better, he was glad he had taken the risk.
    He watched her finger the shell necklace Julianna had given her. He wondered what had gone through Julianna’s head when she had seen him sitting next to the little girl. Did Julianna believe that Jody was his? From the stricken expression on her face, he imagined that she did.
    Gray would have liked to relieve her mind, and he would have, if he’d been allowed to talk to her. But he hadn’t been allowed to. What kind of a bastard did she think he was? Could she truly believe he had divorced her immediately and married again to produce this child?
    “Gray, it’s your turn.”
    From the way Jody said the words, Gray knew it wasn’t the first time she’d said them.
    “Sorry,” he apologized. “You mean I get a chance to go? I thought you had me beaten already.”
    Jody giggled. “We have to play to the end.”
    “You mean I have to wait to get beaten?”
    “I’ll try to make it quick.”
    “Maybe we should teach you blackjack and take you to Vegas.”
    Jody giggled. “I already know how to play blackjack. And I play five card draw and seven card stud, too.”
    Gray forced himself to concentrate on the game in front of him. He was grateful the little girl had interrupted his reminiscences. Thinking about Julianna wasn’t making things any easier. The past was over. There was no way to change what had happened. Ellie was gone. Julie Ann was gone, replaced by the successful and stunning Julianna. Gray, the young man torn between a love that had come too soon and a beckoning future, was gone, too. A man proverbially sadder and wiser was left. And one thing he was wiser about was not mourning the past. He had learned the hard way that it didn’t help.
    The game continued as the plane began a drop in altitude. The captain apologized over the loudspeaker for the increasing turbulence but assured them that it was to be expected. They had passed through the worst of the storm, and even though they were now low enough to experience the winds more fully, every minute of flying time took them farther from the storm’s center. Their landing should be trouble free.
    As he played, Gray thought of how the storm must be affecting Julianna. In ten years’ time he hadn’t lived through a storm without thinking of her. She had changed so much in a decade that he hadn’t recognized her, but he imagined one thing had stayed the same. She would still be frightened of storms. She might cover it with a veneer of sophistication, but she would still be afraid.
    “You’ve got the old maid.”
    “So I have.” Gray turned it over for Jody to see. “You win.”
    She nodded as if she had expected it. “Want to play again?”
    “We’ll be landing soon. I guess we’d better put the cards away.”
    Jody pouted, but she did as she was told.
    Gray settled back and wondered what he should do when he got into Honolulu. He wanted to talk to Julianna. There was too much at stake just to let it drop until he could track her down again. He wanted to get their discussion out of the way and put their past to rest as soon as possible.
    The time was long past for peace between them. In the days when she had still been Julie Ann to him, he had searched everywhere after her disappearance, but she hadn’t wanted to be found. The best professionals had finally told him it was useless to keep looking. If she was alive, she would eventually contact him. If she wasn’t...
    Gray hadn’t believed she was dead. He knew her for the courageous, intelligent woman that she was. Julie Ann would survive and make a new life for herself. Her disappearance was a clear message. She wanted that life to be far away from his.
    Perhaps he never would have found her if his friend Paige Duvall hadn’t gone to a fashion show last month in New Orleans and begun to put the pieces together. The