up, though not quite as high as her voice. “What did you say?”
“Adam isn’t dead, Mother. I saw him last night, and again this morning.”
“Georgia, if this is your idea of a joke…” Natalie groped for her wineglass.
But Samantha, too, had seen, and was staring fixedly across the room.“She isn’t joking, Mother,” she confirmed faintly.
Natalie swiveled round in her chair, her gasp of dismay attesting to what most of the other people in the room also were noticing: the not-so-late Lieutenant Colonel Adam Cabot, large as life, sitting across from his grandmother and inspecting the menu.
Gradually becoming aware that the dining room had grown unusually silent, he looked around and found himself the object of everyone’s stunned attention, not the least among them Natalie and Samantha. Excusing himself to his grandmother, he rose from the table. Georgia supposed it was too much to hope he wouldn’t come over to theirs, and she was right.
“Hello, Mrs. Chamberlaine,” he said, as easily as if he’d last seen her only the week before.“How are you?”
If there was one thing a person could depend on, Georgia thought, watching the exchange with horrified fascination, it was that Natalie Chamberlaine never forgot her manners. She rose beautifully, if shakily, to the occasion.“Very well, thank you, Adam. And you?”
“Never better,” he said, all charming smiles.
Samantha didn’t fare quite as well as her mother.“We thought you were dead,” she said.
Adam’s smile assumed an edge that would have cut glass.“Lovely to see you again, too, Sammie.”
“People don’t call me by that name now that I’m married,” she said, smoothing her impeccably cut hair.
“Married? Little Sammie?”
Only Samantha could have missed the amused irony in his tone.“Yes,” she said, and held out her hand defiantly to show off her broad platinum wedding ring.
Adam inspected it with the tolerant awe of an uncle admiring his niece’s latest toy.“Very nice, Sammie.”
Flushed with annoyance at his continued lack of proper respect, Samantha unwisely attempted to punish him.“In case you haven’t heard, Georgia will be wearing one, too, next month at this time.”
His smoky blue gaze switched then and settled gravely on Georgia. His smile faded.“Will she?” he said softly.“Are you sure?”
If his first question was directed at her sister, his second was meant exclusively for her. Georgia knew Adam too well to be mistaken about that.
She tried to look away but he held her prisoner in his gaze and refused to let go. To her horror, she felt herself being drawn into those sultry blue depths and suffused with another bout of unspeakable longing.
“Very sure,” she croaked, her mouth so dry she could scarcely get the words out. But when she tried to relieve the situation by taking a sip of wine, her hand shook so badly that she had to set the glass down again in a hurry.
No, you’re not, his eyes said. You’re remembering how it felt when I kissed you this morning and you’re no longer sure of anything.
“Why are you here?” Samantha asked belligerently.
“To have lunch with my grandmother. Does that offend you?” Adam answered, never once allowing his gaze to stray from Georgia.
“Of course not, Adam. That wasn’t what Samantha meant at all. You can understand, I’m sure, that we’re…well, ‘taken aback’ scarcely describes it.” Fully in control of herself again, Natalie flicked her serviette much as a matador might have tried to deflect the attention of a wayward bull.“I’m sure you have a quite remarkable explanation for your absence and we’d love to hear it, but this is not the time. Your grandmother is obviously anxious to have you rejoin her. Please don’t keep her waiting on our account.”
“Oh, she’s waited fifteen months for the pleasure of my company at lunch,” Adam said, ignoring the hint and keeping his gaze glued to Georgia.“I think she can wait a couple of minutes more, or as long as it takes for me to offer my congratulations to the bride and her family.”
“Listen, Adam!” Samantha, who never had learned when to leave well enough alone, wagged a finger at him.“We don’t know where you’ve been for the last year or more and we don’t particularly care, but one thing we do want to make clear: we won’t stand for your causing trouble for the Chamberlaines again and disrupting another wedding. You’re not going to make us the laughingstock of this town a second time.”
“Were people laughing the last time?” he inquired mischievously.“How very unkind, considering that everyone thought I’d died a hero’s death.”
Samantha puffed up with righteous indignation.“Stop twisting my words. No one wished you dead in the first place and no one does now—as long as you don’t try to disrupt Georgia’s plans. But she’s finally making the right marriage and we won’t put up with your trying to spoil things for her.”
Adam lifted his shoulders in a puzzled shrug.“Why are you so worried?” he said smoothly, his gaze continuing to burn into Georgia’s soul.“If, as you claim to believe, everything’s perfect, nobody can spoil things. But if there are hidden flaws…” He smiled and dropped his glance to Georgia’s mouth, then down her throat to where her heart was fluttering madly beneath her silk blouse.“…well then, I’m afraid they’ll surface sooner or later, no matter how hard you try to ignore them. Have a nice lunch, ladies.”
“I never did like him,” Samantha declared, stating the painfully obvious as he wove a path back to where Beverley Walsh waited for him. But her sister was in a minority, Georgia decided, watching as his progress was hampered by a number of other diners eager to express pleasure in his return from the dead.
Natalie, however, had other things on her mind than taking a poll of Adam’s enduring popularity.“Georgia,” she said urgently, her pretty brown eyes full of anxiety, “you’re not having second thoughts about Steven, are you?”
“No,” Georgia said, feeling as if an intolerable weight were compressing her chest.
“Are you sure, dear?”
“Yes,” she said, because she wanted it so badly to be true. But the sad fact was, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Adam Cabot flirting merrily with the waitress who’d come to take his order, and the sight sliced like a blade through Georgia’s heart. What had happened to those invisible lines of defense that had served her so well in recent months? Why had they fallen apart now, when she needed them most?
“Because you know, dear, everything’s in place for the wedding,” her mother went on.“The flowers, the caterers, the church—”
“Not to mention all the loot,” Samantha cut in.“You don’t want to go through that routine again, do you, Georgia, having to return all the gifts and write those tedious little notes of explanation and stuff. Remember how embarrassing that was?”
“Yes,” Georgia said, clenching her hands under cover of the table to prevent herself from racing over and yanking out that brassy
