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according to plan, Noah would have stood as Trevor’s best man at the wedding. Just as it would have been inappropriate for her to—oh, God—check out his butt during the ceremony, so was it now.
    When it came right down to it, she couldn’t afford to be distracted by a taboo attraction to Noah. She’d come back home to seek his help, to find closure so that she could finally move on with her life. Once she received the answers to the terrible questions that had haunted her for the past three years, she would return to Washington, D.C., to her job at the Post and the new friendships she’d been too depressed to cultivate up to that point.
    And once she was away from here and finally freed from the ghosts of the past, Noah Roarke would become nothing more than a distant memory.
    As far as she was concerned, that day couldn’t come fast enough.

Chapter 4
    W hen Riley arrived home and found her grandmother sprawled across the family room floor, she panicked.
    â€œOh my God! Grandma!” she cried, rushing over and dropping to her knees beside the prone woman. “Grandma, are you okay?”
    Florinda Kane’s cinnamon-brown eyes blinked open. “Riley?”
    â€œYes, it’s me, Grandma,” Riley said soothingly, checking her grandmother’s pulse, striving to calm her own. “I’m here now. You’re going to be okay.”
    â€œOf course I am,” Florinda said, gently swatting away Riley’s hand and pulling herself to a sitting position. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    Riley stared at her. “Because you fell down…didn’t you?”
    Florinda chortled. “No, baby. I was doing my deep-breathing exercises.”
    â€œDeep-breathing…?” For the first time, Riley noticed the tiny beads of perspiration on her grandmother’s forehead, the damp towel draped around her slender neck, and the black leggings and oversize T-shirt she wore. “You were exercising?”
    â€œDon’t sound so shocked. How else do you think I maintain this girlish figure?”
    Awash with relief, Riley laughed and gave her grandmother a quick, warm hug. “Thank God! I saw you lying on the floor and thought something terrible had happened.”
    Smiling, Florinda patted Riley’s cheek. “You can just put your mind at ease,” she cheerfully assured her. “It’s not my time to go yet. There’s still much work to be done. Hand me my water, will you, baby?”
    As Riley crawled over to the cherry coffee table and retrieved the water bottle, she spied a Pilates DVD case on the floor nearby. Grinning to herself, she crawled back over to her grandmother and passed her the water.
    â€œThank you, baby,” Florinda murmured, dabbing at her face and neck with the towel before taking a swig from the bottle.
    Riley had always thought of her grandmother’s face as handsome, etched with strength and character that deepened as she grew older. Her creamy skin glowed with health and vitality. Her eyes were bright and keenly intelligent, gleaming with a preternatural wisdom that never failed to astonish. When Florinda Kane predicted rain, it didn’t matter that the forecast called for clear blue skies. It rained. When Florinda spoke of the addition of a family member, an aunt or cousin would call a few days later with exciting news of someone’s pregnancy. Growing up, Riley would have challenged anyone who told her that her grandmother wasn’t psychic. She’d bragged about it at school, until her second-grade teacher sent her home one day with a note about telling lies. After her parents scolded her, Florinda had taken Riley aside and wiped her tears, then, her eyes twinkling with mischief, she’d told her granddaughter that her “special gift” was something others would never understand, so it had to be their little secret. Riley had never breathed another word to anyone about Florinda’s