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WITH HER HANDSon her hips, Roz studied her newly arranged In the Garden potting soil preparation area It had taken two full days, eking out ti with the precise-minded Stella to set it up

In Roz&039;s estimation it would have taken her half that time alone, but it wouldn&039;t have been nearly as practical a work space There were tubs of soil she&039;d already e, the scale, scoops, bag sealer, stools

Everything was arranged in assembly-line efficiency

The outlay had been relatively little, which had pleased Stella, who had a head for profit as well as precision With the si, and what she knew to be an excellent product, Roz felt confident they&039;d do very well Very well indeed

Her reet Harper as he cah the door of the work shed

"What do you think of our new enterprise?" She held out her ar she&039;d already filled and sealed and tossed it over to hi over "No frills It says this is serious dirt Looks like soarden boutique"

"Exactly, and we&039;ll keep the price down initially, to get it s overfilled by a couple ounces to give ht we&039;d put Ruby on the job, for a start anyway Maybe see if Steve wants to take some part-time work It won&039;t be that labor intensive, or take that much time"

"It&039;s sot a knack for it"

"I like to think so We still ht be after I finish telling you I went into Meie"

Her face went blank; her voice turned cool "Why would you do that, Harper?"

"One, I was pissed off Two, David and Stella talkedhis face in Third, I wanted to hear foron between you"

"I understand one perfectly I appreciate two, on several levels But I fail to coate aIt&039;s unpardonably rude and interfering I don&039;t run around snooping on the wo, and I&039;ve never chosen to see a woman who stole from me or set out to interfere with my life or s yet" Ice dripped from the words "Do you think I&039;led up with an asshole?"

"No, I don&039;t But I don&039;t much care about other women You&039;re ive you the right to - "

"I love you"

"Don&039;t use that weapon on me"

"I can&039;t help it It&039;s all I&039;ve got"

She pressed her fingers to the center of her forehead, rubbed hard "It would help if you added a little trust and respect to that love, Harper"

"I&039;ve got all the trust and respect in the world for you, Mama It&039;s the men I&039;m not so sure about But if it helps any, I worked up plenty of trust and respect for Mitch last night He h to courtet this sort ofWe went to a college basketball game, we had dinner"

"I think he&039;s stuck on you"

She stared, and this time lifted both hands to the sides of her head "My head is reeling"

He walked to her, slid his arms around her, and drew her in "I couldn&039;t stand to see you get hurt again"

"Bryce only hurt my pride"

"That&039;s a mortal wound for us Harpers And he did more than that I don&039;t think Mitch will do the same, at least not deliberately"

"So, you approve"

He grinned when she tipped her head up to look at him "That&039;s a trick question, and my mama didn&039;t raise any fools I say yes, and you&039;ll ripto say I like him I like him a lot"

"You&039;re a slippery one, Harper Ashby Tell you what" She patted his back, eased away "You can give s of each weight category"

"I thought you wanted Ruby to do that"

"Changed ht to give you some time to reflect on the error of your ways"

"Talk about slippery"

"The day you can outwitet started"

AFTER WORK SHEwent straight home, and directly upstairs to clean up Wary now, she checked the h the bills She couldn&039;t say she was relieved when she found nothing It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop

There had been a siht after the divorce, then a nice period of peace When, she assu and was too involved to waste his ti sticks at an ex-wife

She&039;d handled it then; she&039;d handle it now

As she was dressing the phone rang When it hit the third ring, she assumed David was otherwise occupied and answered herself

"Good evening Is Rosalind Harper available?"

"This is she"

"Ms Harper, this is Derek froton Gallery in New York We&039;re just following up to let you know the Vergano will be shipped to you toood idea, Derek, is it? I didn&039;t order anything froano, Ms Harper Your representative spoke with me personally only last week"

"I don&039;t have a representative"

"Ms Harper, I&039;e has already been cleared to your account Your representative indicated that you were very taken with the painting, and wished to have it shipped as soon as the shoas over We&039;ve had considerable interest in this work, but as it was already sold - "

She rubbed hard at the back of her neck where the tension had settled "It looks like we both have a probleive you soht herself pacing as she spoke, and as a fresh headache brewed She noted down the credit card co"

"Yes," she agreed, "it certainly is I&039;allery have been inconvenienced by this Would youano&039;s a very powerful and dynamic artist This oil on linen, custom framed by the artist, is fro Bitch "

"Of course it is," Roz replied

She went though the routine, calling the credit card co to both to docu down to the kitchen and pouring herself a large glass of wine

David&039;s note sat propped on the counter

Hot date An exceptional lasagna&039;s on waran&039;s with Stella and the boys They&039;re having a little painting party More than enough lasagna for two Dr Studly&039;s in the library Just ware - and you&039;re setBuon appetito!

David

PS Appropriate CDs already loaded in the player Nowpleasego up and put on those Jimmy Choo&039;s

"Well" She noted David had set the kitchen nook with festive plates, fat candles, a bottle of San Pellegrino, pale green glasses And it explained why a bottle of good Italian red was breathing on the counter

"Lasagna&039;s fine," she said aloud "But I&039; on those shoes to eat it"

Content and coray socks she habitually wore around the house, she walked to the library

He was sitting at the table, wearing his glasses and a Me quickly over the keyboard of his laptop On the desk was a large bottle of water David&039;s doing, no doubt He&039;d have nagged Mitch to rotate water with his habitual coffee

He lookedstudiously sexy, she decided, with his intellectual glasses and the mass of thick, disordered hair That rich broith just a hint of chestnut

There were good eyes behind those glasses, she thought Not just the color, so deep, so unique, but good, direct eyes A little intense, unnervingly intense, and she had to ad

Even as she watched, he paused in his typing to scoop the fingers of one hand through his hair Andto hear hi the sa slow pull in her belly, and the little dance of lust up her spine Wasn&039;t it good to know those instinctive charges still had spark? And wasn&039;t she curious to see ould happen if she took a chance, and lit the fuse?

Even as she thought it, books flew off the shelf, slammed into each other, then the walls, the floor In the fireplace, flames leaped in hot reds, while the air shivered with cold

"Jesus Christ"

Mitch shoved back froed to duck one book, then block another As Roz rushed forward, everything stopped

"You see that? Did yousee that?" He bent, picked up a book, then dropped it on the table It wasn&039;t fear in that lovely, liquid drawl, she noted It was fascination "It&039;s like ice"

"Temper tantrums" She picked up a book herself, and the cold nearly nuers

"I in here since about three" Grinning like a boy, he checked his watch "Nearly four hours It&039;s been quiet as, you&039;ll excuse the expression, a tomb Until now"

"I suppose I set her off, as I was about to ask if you&039;d like to have dinner David left a an to retrieve the rest of the books "No question that she doesn&039;t like the two of us together"

"Apparently not"

He set the last book on the shelf "Sowhat&039;s for dinner?"

She glanced over at him, smiled And in that mo about hina, which David bills as exceptional As I&039;ve sampled it in the past, I can vouch for his claiood Sorry," he added when her eyebrows lifted "Thinking out loud Listen, I&039;ve been able to eli the interviee&039;ve done so far I&039;ve got a file here for you"

"All right"

"I&039; down some of the descendants of staff, and e&039;ll call the outer branches of the fa relative is your cousin Clarise - and happily she&039;s local I&039;d like to talk to her"

"Good luck with that"

"She&039;s still in the area, at the"

"Riverbank Center Yes, I know"

"She puts eneration closer to Amelia It&039;d be simpler, I&039;d think, to approach her if you spoke to her first"

"I&039; terms, or any sort of terms whatsoever"

"I know you said there was a rift, but wouldn&039;t she be interested in what I&039; with the family?"

"Possibly But I can assure you, she wouldn&039;t take my call if I made one"

"Look, I understand about family schisms, but in this case - "

"You don&039;t understand Clarise Harper She dropped her surnaally by her first and middle names That&039;s how entrenched in the Harper na she never found anyone soft or stupid enough to take her on"

Frowning, he hitched a hip on the table "Is this your way of tellingher, because - "

"I hired you to do a job, and don&039;t intend to tell you how to go about it, so don&039;t get your back up I&039; you she&039;s chosen to banish me and mine froood thing I can say about her is once she&039;s h"

"But you don&039;t have any objection toher"

"None Your best bet is to write her - very for sure to use the doctor part, and any other iht have at hand If you tell her you intend to do a family history on the Harpers, and play up how honored you would be to interview her, and so on, she ree"

"This is the one you kicked out of the house, right?"

"In ayou about that"

"I talk to people She&039;s not the one you chased off with a Weedwacker"

A to people"

"Part of the job"

"I suppose No, I didn&039;t chase her with a Weedwacker That was the gardeners And it wasn&039;t a Weedwacker, come to that It was a fan rake, which was unlikely to do any serious da rabbed the loppers those idiots had used on iven theood jab in the ass as they skeddadled"

"Loppers Would those be" Heht"

"Ouch Back to your cousin Why&039;d you give her the boot?"

"Because when I invited her, to o, she called my sons disreputable brats and stated - she without chick or child - that if I were a proper ularly She then called Harper a born liar, as he was entertaining so cousins with stories about the Bride, and told hiled his head "And still she lives"

Teht a flush to her cheeks, but his coround already as she constantly criticized , my lifestyle, and occasionally round and attacksmy quarry, I was certain banishment from Harper House was a more painful punishment"