Sheila picked up the glittering rings and held them out in her palm. “Here you go. You don’t want to lose those.”

Mary Beth slipped them on, avoiding Parr’s gaze as long as she could. The conversation turned to other things and she joined in. When she looked at him again, his expression was serious.

He looked into her eyes, then down. Mary Beth reached up a hand and touched her neck. He had to be thinking of the ruby pendant. She hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him it was broken. He hadn’t noticed at the pool, but maybe he’d assumed she wouldn’t wear it in the water.

If he had given it a thought at all. The searing sensuality of that encounter came back in a rush.

Mary Beth got up, confused and too warm to stay in the kitchen. She’d finished her sandwich anyway and did the same as Parr, taking her paper plate to the trash can.

“That was delicious,” she said to Alma. “And now I’d better find my phone. Will you all excuse me for a bit?”

“Of course, honey. We’ll be out on the porch.” Sheila set several glasses on a tray and added the pitcher of tea. “Come on, Parr. It’s your turn to get me caught up on your life. Alma says you’re involved in a bunch of new business ventures. Are you rich yet?”

“Working on it.”

After dinner was served and the dishes done, Alma and Sheila stayed inside to watch a tearjerker movie as Parr and Mary Beth wandered out to the porch. They took either end of the wicker sofa.

“You stay on your side,” Mary Beth murmured. “And I’ll stay on mine. I don’t want to tempt fate.”

“Do we have a choice?”

“No.”

“Enough said. Nice night.”

Lightning bugs drifted against the dark backdrop of trees, flashing to each other.

“They’re so pretty. We don’t get too many in Iminga.” Mary Beth remembered that he hadn’t lived there as long as her. And that he’d left town instead of sticking around the way she had.

“Bobby Joe and I used to collect them in jars around here,” he said. “Then mother made us let them all go. She didn’t want bugs in her house, not for a minute.”

“I can imagine.”

Some of the movie dialogue drifted out through the open window. Parr shook his head. “Sounds like unrequited love to me. Don’t you always want to tell the people in a movie to wise up?”

“Sometimes.”

Mary Beth leaned her head against the back of the wicker sofa, wishing they didn’t have to sit apart. But that was how it had to be.

He turned and glanced through the open window behind them, making sure that no one would overhear. Then he turned toward her. “What happened to the necklace?”