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His throat constricted.
    Izzie tugged on his shirttail. “Daddy, let’s go say hi.”
    Before he could act, Max darted into the aisle and latched on to his aunt’s hand. When he pulled her into the family pew, Seth Duer went ramrod stiff. Caroline lifted her chin and stared straight ahead.
    The veterinarian appeared in that moment to Weston to resemble old paintings he’d seen of saints before the lions. And he found himself admiring her guts. She must have known coming home—coming here today—wouldn’t be easy.
    Owning the consequences of your actions never was. That he knew something about. His own hypocrisy smote Weston. He was ashamed of how he’d condemned Caroline yesterday at the lighthouse. He’d acted as judge and jury without knowing both sides of the story. And after what had happened with Izzie’s mother, he was the least qualified person on the planet to be handing out judgment on anyone.
    Weston’s heart thumped with the longing to make things better for the veterinarian. To help her make things right with her family and the community. It seemed to him he’d never met a braver person. Not on a storm-tossed cutter. Nor a beleaguered sailor in the face of certain death. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
    Eyes narrowed, Reverend Parks called the assembly to order. Lips compressed, with great deliberation, he closed the flap of his e-tablet on which he kept his sermon outline. “Please take your seats.”
    Reverend Parks gripped the sides of the podium with both hands. “I’ve decided to change my sermon this morning to a passage dear to my heart.”
    Across the aisle, Weston couldn’t keep his gaze from straying toward Caroline.
    â€œOpen your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.”
    The reverend paused at the sound of flipping pages. Weston helped Izzie locate the Scripture in her petal-pink kids’ Bible.
    Reverend Parks waited until every eye met his. “Today...” His gaze roamed across the congregation before resting on Seth Duer in the third row. “I want to talk to you about prodigals.”
    Weston felt rather than saw Caroline flinch. Her chest rose and fell with the difficulty of taking a steady breath. His heartbeat accelerated.
    Did the reverend intend to publicly humiliate Caroline Duer? He and Izzie hadn’t been here that long. Not yet a year. Weston glanced around at the assembled congregation. The atmosphere was thick with tension. So silent you could have heard the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings. His stomach muscles knotted.
    He sensed that beneath the brittle exterior Caroline donned, there was an inner fragility. Which made her courage more remarkable. What did the reverend intend to say? Would his words destroy any chance the vet had for winning support for the marine animal rehab? Worse yet, would the next few minutes destroy Caroline herself?
    Weston gritted his teeth. He unconsciously curled his hands into fists. He wouldn’t allow them—Reverend Parks included—to bully the turtle lady. Not on his watch.
    â€œâ€˜And while the son was yet a long way off,’” Reverend Parks read the Scripture, “‘the father saw him and felt compassion for him. Ran and embraced him and kissed him.’”
    Weston found himself holding his breath, praying for this unknown woman with whom his daughter had formed such an inexplicable bond. A bond he shared?
    â€œAnd so we must celebrate.” Reverend Parks leaned into the podium. “The child who was dead has now begun to live. A child who was lost but later found.” Tears swam in his Delmarva-blue eyes. “A child who is very much like every one of us,” he whispered.
    What followed was a lesson in grace so tender and so profound those who were privileged to hear Reverend Parks that day would later declare it to be the finest exposition of the gospel they’d ever heard. Made