Her Mother's Shadow by Diane Chamberlain Page A

the sweet and gentle way you are with me, I can tell that you’re a compassionate person. I bet you usually forgive people very easily.”
    â€œWell.” She sighed, lifting her fork from the edge of her plate. “The irony is that my mother would have been the first to forgive him,” she said, spearing a scallop. “Unfortunately, though, I’m nothing like her.”

CHAPTER 6
    L acey stood next to the examining table at the animal hospital, her hands buried in the thick, black shoulder fur of a Bernese mountain dog, while her father snipped the stitches from several shaved areas on the dog’s side.
    â€œYou’re being such a good boy,” Lacey cooed to the dog. He was huge, a hundred and ten pounds, and panting up a storm. His heavy coat was not designed for a North Carolina summer.
    â€œHe’s healing very well,” her father said.
    From where she stood, she could see how the gray was rapidly invading her father’s once dark hair, and for some reason, that distressed her.
    â€œDon’t you try to escape again,” Lacey said to the dog, who appeared to be ignoring her. He stared straight ahead at the wall, stoically tolerating the procedure until he could return to the waiting room and his beloved owner. The dog belonged to a family staying in a beachfront house, and he’d run straight through a flimsy wooden fence on the day of their arrival, anxious to cool off in the ocean.
    Suzy, the receptionist, suddenly opened the door to the examining room and poked her head inside.
    â€œThere’s a gorgeous vase full of yellow roses out here for you, Lacey,” she said. “They were just delivered.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.” Lacey looked at Suzy. “Who are they from?” She knew there could only be one answer to that question.
    Suzy held up a small envelope. “You’ve got your hands full,” she said. “Want me to open it for you?”
    Lacey nodded, and Suzy pulled out the card and held it toward her. One hand still deep in the dog’s fur, Lacey took the card and read the handwritten message to herself. You are the best thing about this summer. With affection, Rick.
    â€œWell?” Suzy asked with a grin, her curiosity clearly piqued.
    â€œA friend.” Lacey slipped the card into the pocket of her lab coat. “Thanks for letting me know.”
    Suzy left the room, and Lacey did not need to look at her father to know his eyes were on her.
    â€œRoses, huh?” he asked. Two little words, but she knew all that was behind them. What are you doing, Lacey? Are you being careful? Are you falling into your old ways?
    â€œNot from anyone special, Dad,” she said.
    He returned his attention to the stitches without another word, but she knew he wasn’t finished. He wouldn’t be able to help himself. She wasn’t surprised when he spoke again. “None of them were ever special to you, though,” he said. “That was the problem, wasn’t it? That you were indiscriminate? That caring about a person wasn’t really what mattered to—”
    â€œDad,” she said. She loved him immensely, but he could be such a pain in the neck. “I don’t want to talk about this, okay? The roses are from a nice guy I’ve been seeing recently. Platonically. They’re yellow roses, not red. Please have a little faith in me.” She was quiet a moment, then added, “Gina and Clay have met him, and they like him.”
    She and Rick had been out three times so far, and she’d finally allowed him to pick her up at the keeper’s house the night before. She’d been nervous about introducing him to her brother and sister-in-law, but they’d instantly been able to tell that Rick was different from the other men she’d dated. The house had been full of people when he arrived, and she’d worried that Rick would be overwhelmed. Henry, the grandfather of Clay’s