Pawley's Island - Dorothea Benton Frank

Rebecca Simms has run away to Pawley's Island to escape. She is also looking to find a job and representation for her painting. At Gallery Valentine, she finds both.

Huey Valentine, her new boss, and his good friend, Abigail Thurmond, sense that there is more to Rebecca than meets the eye, and slowly she reveals the rest of her story. Rebecca is in the middle of a terrible divorce, sprung on her suddenly by her husband who has all the advantages that money and the law will allow. He has even managed to persuade a judge to give him sole custody of their children.

Rebecca's plight is immediately taken up by her new friends. And Abigail just happens to be a recently retired matrimonial lawyer. She escaped to Pawley's Island to play golf and write her memoirs, but Becca's troubles persuade her to take on one last case...