“Hey, I love puppies. We’ll be fine.”

“Oh, thank you. I won’t forget this.”

“There’s nothing more to say. We’re family. We’re in this together.” She turned and looked at the puppy, who was pressed against the fence again, her large brown eyes locked onto Linnea. “I guess that now includes you.”

chapter six

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed one million.

APRIL IN SOUTH Carolina was a wonder. Driving over the massive Ravenel Bridge, the link between the Charleston Peninsula and points north, Cooper Rutledge looked into a sky so brilliant a blue it hurt his travel-weary eyes. Below, Charleston Harbor was bustling. Mammoth container ships were docked, one after another, looking like a child’s toy set from this height. The Cooper River, for which he’d been named, opened to a sea that mirrored the sky, crystalline and infinite. As the hired car descended from the bridge, Robert Browning’s words, Oh, to be in England, now that April’s there, played in his mind.

He loved the lowcountry. It was his home. But he loved England too. He was sorry to be chased out of Oxford by some bloody pandemic. At Oxford University, the name Rutledge held no weight. His family’s history was puny compared to those of royal lineage. He rather enjoyed being a nobody. The expectations of him were based solely on his own ability, his own efforts and dreams. What those dreams might be was still a work in progress. But at least he was sniffing along the right track. He felt the prize drawing near.

He was doing well in his classes. Very well, in fact, which was also a new experience for him. Cooper had always skated on the perimeter of his abilities. Teachers used words like “full of promise,” or “he isn’t working up to his potential.” The truth was, Cooper hadn’t cared about school. He’d much preferred to drink with his pals, hunt at private lodges, play football, drive his truck, and spend time with a lady friend. He’d studied just hard enough to pass. He was the only son of Palmer Rutledge, heir of the Charleston Import Export Company. Why did he have to study? Work hard? He was destined to step into his father’s shoes to head up the company, as Rutledge sons had done for generations.

Cooper brought his hands to his eyes and gently rubbed them. That was no longer his destiny. Under his father’s stewardship, the company had gone belly-up, and with it the carefully constructed path that Cooper was intended to follow.

It had been the making of him. When all hell broke loose the summer he’d graduated from high school, Cooper finally broke free of the chains of expectations. From his father’s demands. It was hard-won, true. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t like to think about those times, or his near miss with death. It often felt like that was another lifetime ago. Another person.