Free Copper Lake Secrets by Marilyn Pappano Page B

in some stuffy church.”
    More likely he’d been afraid that God might strike him down if he stepped through the doorway of the sanctuary.
    “So nothing memorable happened that summer.”
    Grandmother gave her a chastising look. “Obviously not, or you would have remembered it.” Gripping the book with both hands, she lifted it from her lap. “I’ve brought this for you. It’s a history of the Howard family. Your great-grandfather commissioned it shortly before he passed. You should know from where—and from whom—you come.”
    With reluctance Reece took the book. It was heavy, bound in leather, its pages yellowed and its fragrance musty. She couldn’t imagine much more boring than a family history where the family chose which facts to include and which to leave forgotten. No doubt every Howard in the book appeared as highly intelligent, benevolent, compassionate, heroic and generous, and from her limited experience, she knew better.
    “I’ll look at it this afternoon.” Not a lie. She would look at it. She just might not open the cover. Though knowing Grandmother, there would probably be a quiz later.
    “Did Mark and I get along that summer?”
    Grandmother’s gaze was directed westward, toward the river barely visible through the live oaks. “Of course you did. You were cousins. He might have been something of a pest, but you were rather spoiled and had a tendency to cry.”
    Of course I did! My dad had died and Valerie had left me here where I hated it!
    “We’d hoped you would grow out of it, and you did stop tattling fairly quickly, but you were still prickly. Comes from being an only child, I suppose.”
    Mark was an only child, as well—and a brat. He’d gotten her in trouble, blamed her for his own actions and scared her more times than she could count. But he’d been the grandchild they knew, the one they could handle.
    The silence had gone on awhile when abruptly Grandmother spoke again. “I blamed your mother, you know.”
    “For spoiling me?” Wrong person. Valerie had been okay as a mother, but it was Dad who had indulged Reece. He’d been like a kid himself, finding wonder in everything they did. He’d loved being silly and making her giggle, and he’d usually found a way to give her things Valerie had said no to, without upsetting Valerie, either. He’d had a knack for getting his way without upsetting people.
    Which made his estrangement from his parents seem that much odder.
    “For your father’s death,” Grandmother answered. “If she hadn’t come to Georgia for college…if she hadn’t insisted on going back to Colorado…if Elliott had been here where he belonged, he wouldn’t have been on the highway that day. He wouldn’t have been hit by that speeding truck.” Her voice softened to a whisper. “He wouldn’t have died.”
    Pain stirred in Reece’s chest. One thing she did remember from that time was the if game. If I’m a good girl, Daddy will come back. If I do everything I’m supposed to do, they’ll tell me it was a mistake. If I pray hard enough tonight, when I wake up in the morning he’ll be here.
    But there had been nothing conditional about it. Her dad was dead, and there was nothing she could do to change it.
    “Dad didn’t leave Georgia because of Valerie.” She was staring out across the yard, too, but she felt the sharp touch of Grandmother’s gaze. After a moment, she looked at her. “You know it’s true. He left because of Grandfather.” He had never deemed Reece old enough to hear the whole story, and all Valerie would say was that he and Arthur had had issues, but that was the reason they’d moved to Valerie’s hometown of Denver. It was the reason for their infrequent visits and why Dad had little contact with his mother and virtually none with his father.
    Plum-tinged lips drew into a thin, hard line, but Grandmother didn’t argue. Did she regret that she’d let her husband cost her so much time with her son?
    Reece didn’t have