Sanctuary(71)

"Appreciate it."

"she was pretty drunk last night," Giff added as he slipped behind the wheel. "I saw her-Lexy and I saw her. We were in the water ...

taking a swim," he added with a quick glance over.

"Swimming-right."

Gaff waited a beat, tugged at the brim of his cap. "How am I supposed to tell you I'm sleeping with your sister?"

Brian pressed his fingers to his eyes. "I guess that was one way. It's a little difficult for me to get my tongue around the word 'congratulations' under the circumstances."

"You want to know my intentions?"

"I don't." Brian held up a hand. "I really, really don't."

"I'm going to marry her."

"Now I'm never going to be able to say the word 'congratulations' again." Shifting in his seat, Brian aimed a level stare at Giff. "Are you crazy?"

"I love her." Giff slapped the truck into reverse and backed up. "I always have."

Brian got a vividly clear picture of Lexy gleefully kicking Gaff's still bleeding heart off a cliff "You're a big boy, Giff. You know what you're getting into."

"That's right, just like I know that you and everybody else in your family never give Lexy enough credit." Gaff's normally mild voice took on a defensive edge that made Brian raise his eyebrows. "she's smart, she's strong, she's got a heart as big as the ocean, and when you shake the nonsense away, she's as loyal as they come."

Brian blew out a long breath. she was also reckless, impulsive, and self absorbed. But Giff's words had struck a chord and made Brian ashamed. "You're right. And if anyone can polish up her better qualities, I'd say it would be you."

"she needs me." Gaff tapped his fingers on the wheel. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention any of this to her. I haven't gotten to that part yet."

"Believe me, the last thing I want to discuss with Alexs is her love life."

"Good. Well, I veered off from where I was heading. Like I was saying, I saw Ginny last night. Must have been somewhere around midnight. Wasn't paying much attention to the time. she was walking south on the beach-stopped and waved at us."

"Was she alone?"

"Yeah. Said she needed to clear her head. I didn't notice her walk back, but I was kind of, uh, busy for a while."

"Well, if she assed out on the beach, someone would have come p across her by now, so she must have walked back, or cut up over the dunes."

"We found one of her earrings in that clearing on the Sanctuary side of the river."

"When?"

"Little bit ago," Giff said as he pulled up beside Brian's car. "Lexy and I were . .

"Oh, please, don't put that image in my brain. What are you, rabbits?" He shook his head. "Are you sure it was Ginny's earring?"

"Lexy was-and she was pretty sure Ginny was wearing it last night."

"That's the kind of thing Lex would notice. But it's a funny way for Ginny to walk if she was heading home."

"That's what I thought. Still, she might have been with someone by then. It's not like Ginny to leave a party before it's over-unless she's got another kind of party planned."

"None of this is like Ginny."

"No, it's not. I'm getting worried, Brian."

"Yeah." He got out of the truck, then turned and leaned in the window. "Go get your mother started on those calls. I'm going to head down to the ferry. Who knows, maybe she met the man of her dreams and eloped to Savannah."

I By six there was a full-scale search under way. Through the forest paths, along the rugged hiking trails to the north, down the long curve of beach and around the winding paths that twisted through the sloughs. Some of those who scoured the island remembered another search for another woman.

Twenty years hadn't dimmed the memory. And while they looked for Ginny, many murmured about Annabelle.

Probably she'd taken off just the way Belle had. That was what some thought. she'd gotten an itchy foot and decided to scratch it. The Pendleton girl always had been wild. No, not Annabelle, some said, but Ginny. Annabelle had been still water running deep, and Ginny was all crashing surf But both of them were gone, just the same.

Nathan walked in on one of the conversations as he lingered at the dock, tossing his briefcase into the cab, loading his supplies in the back.

It made his heart beat just a little too fast, a little too hard. It made his stomach churn. He heard Annabelle's name tossed back and forth and it made his cars ring. He'd come to face it, Nathan reminded himself, then had tried to ignore it. He wasn't sure how much longer he could do either. Or if he was going to be able to live with whichever path he took.

He drove to Sanctuary.