Bliss nodded. “But you should let him know. He does care about you and your kids. I know that sounds weird, considering all that’s gone on and how he dealt with you in the past, but I’ve seen firsthand the pain he’s been going through, the struggles. He would want to help find Stephen and he’d be mad as a hornet if we didn’t let him know Stephen was missing.”

Tiffany’s heart was drumming, her pride dissipating by the minute. “I’ll take all the help I can get,” she said fervently. When J.D. had suggested coming to this party, she’d been reticent, but a part of her had hoped that she would locate her rebellious son, stay long enough not to offend anyone, then hightail it back to her house. Now, all she wanted was to find Stephen.

“He’s not here,” she whispered to J.D.

“We don’t know that yet.”

Again, Tiffany searched the faces of the people talking in small clusters. She recognized a few of the townspeople, and several of the kids, but she didn’t see any sign of her son. Music filtered through the throng. On the dance floor Brynnie, dressed in a lacy creamy-white gown that showed off her ample cleavage, smiled radiantly up at her new husband. Her flame-colored hair was pinned in curls to her crown and decorated with tiny rosebuds and sprigs of baby’s breath. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright, merriment fairly oozing from her expression.

For a second Tiffany forgot her worries and watched as John Cawthorne twirled his bride around the makeshift floor, dancing as if he were a man twenty years younger, a man who didn’t fear another heart attack or facing the Grim Reaper. Dressed in a gray tuxedo, he swirled and dipped, causing Brynnie to laugh out loud.

They stared into each other’s eyes as if they were high school sweethearts about to embark upon a new adventure instead of two older people who had kept up a clandestine love affair for years; a man and woman who had brought an illegitimate daughter into the world and let another man claim that child as his own. Katie had grown up thinking Hal Kinkaid was her father. Neither her mother nor her biological father had discouraged the lie—until a few months ago.

John was an adulterer, a cheat and a liar. Brynnie was a loose woman who had married a string of men before finally claiming the love of her life as her husband. There had been lies, neglect, dishonor and betrayal; but tonight, under a kind, pearlescent moon, with romantic music filling the air and champagne flowing from a silver fountain Brynnie and John looked for all the world like a couple in love.

Like they belonged together.