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Nell found the streareen shade Sitting on the soft floor of the forest, listening to the streaain

This was her place She was as sure of that as she&039;d been of any single thing in all her life She belonged here as she&039;d belonged nowhere else

Even as a child she&039;d felt displaced Not by her parents, she thought, running her fingers over her locket Never by them But home had been wherever her father was stationed, and until his orders changed There&039;d been no single place for childhood, no pretty spot for memories to take root and bloo a ho But it wasn&039;t the sa you would wake up to the same view out of your bedroo Nell had carried with her always

Herwith Evan, when she should have known it was so she had to find for herself

Perhaps she had, now Here in this place

That&039;s what Mia had ed on the island Maybe, in soed to it It was as simple as that

Still, Mia was an intuitive woman, and an oddly powerful one She sensed secrets Nell could only hope she was as good as her word and wouldn&039;t pry If anyone started digging through the layers, she would have to leave No ed, she couldn&039;t stay

It wasn&039;t going to happen

Nell got to her feet, stretching up her arms to the thin sunbeams, and turned slow circles She wouldn&039;t let it happen She was going to trust Mia She was going to work for her and live in the little yellow cottage and wake each lorious sense of freedoan to walk back toward her house, she and Miato have a friend that vivid, that clever

What was it like to be a woman like Mia Devlin? she wondered To be someone so utterly beautiful, so sublimely confident? A woman like that would never have to question herself, to remake herself, to worry that whatever she did, or could do, would never be good enough

What a ht be born beautiful, confidence could be learned It could be won And wasn&039;t there a those small battles? Every time you did, you went back to war better arh introspection, she thought and quickened her pace She was going to blow the last of her advance at the garden center

If that wasn&039;t confidence, she decided, as?

They let her open an account Another debt to Mia, Nell thought as she drove back across the island She worked for Mia Devlin, so she was looked upon kindly, she was trusted, she was allowed to take away nature on a tally

A kind of ic, she supposed, that existed only in se, and had still ended up with half a dozen flats And pots, and soil And a silly stone gargoyle ould guard what she planted

Eager to begin, she parked in front of the cottage and hopped out The minute she opened the back door of the car, she was ile

"We&039;re going to have such fun, and I&039; to take wonderful care of all of you"

Feet planted firmly, she stretched inside to lift the first tray

Hell of a view, Zack thought as he stopped across the street A s, faded jeans If athat, he was a sorry individual

He got out of his cruiser, leaned against the door, and watched her take out a flat of pink and white petunias "Pretty picture"

She jerked, nearly bobbled the tray He noted that, just as he noted the alarhtened lazily, strolled across the street

"Let ht I&039;ve got it"

"And a lot more Gonna be busy" He reached past her, took out twowith them?"

"Just around the back for now I haven&039;t decided where I&039; yet But really, you don&039;t have to-"

"Sot here?"

"Herbs Roseon, and so on" The quickest way to be rid of him, she decided, was to let him cart the trays around So she started across the yard "I&039; to put in an herb bed outside the kitchen, etables when I have ti roots, my mother always says"

"I intend to do both Just on the stoop&039;ll be fine Thank you, Sheriff"

"You&039;ve got a couple more in the front seat"

"I can-"

"I&039;ll fetch theet any soil?"

"Yes, in the trunk"

He smiled easily, held out his hand "I need the keys"

"Oh Well" Trapped, she dug in her pocket "Thanks"

When he strolled off, she clasped her hands together It was all right He was just being helpful Not every er She knew better than that

He ca over one shoulder and a flat of pink geraniuh

"I got too et herbs, and before I knew it I couldn&039;t seem to stop"

"That&039;s what they all say I&039;ll get your pots and tools"

"Sheriff" It had once been natural to her to repay kindness with kindness She wanted it to be natural again "I lass?"

"I&039;d appreciate it"

All she had to do was relasses with ice and poured in the tart le about the way he looked, big and ave her a quick little jolt

Attraction Even as she recognized the sensation she re she could or wanted to feel again

"I appreciate the pack lass, draining half of it while that little jolt becalass "This is the real thing Can&039;t think the last time I had fresh lemonade You&039;re a real find, aren&039;t you?"

"I just like to fuss in the kitchen" She bent, picked up her new garden spade

"You didn&039;t buy any gloves"

"No, I didn&039;t think of it"

She wanted hiht, but was too polite to say so Because he knew that, he sat on the little stoop outside the kitchen door, made himself co day Don&039;t let h It&039;s pleasant to watch a woarden"

She&039;d wanted to sit on the stoop, she thought To sit there in the sunshine and iine what she would do with the flowers and herbs Now all she could do was begin

She started with the pots, re herself if she didn&039;t like the results, she could always redo the?"

"Pete?" Zack asked, sipped at his le, and peace settles over our little island once more"

There was humor in the way he said it, and a lazy satisfaction as well It was hard not to appreciate both

"Iteveryone"

"It has its moments" She had small hands, he noticed as he watched her work Quick, clever fingers She kept her head bent, her eyes averted Shyness, he decided, coupled hat see "A lot of it&039;s refereeing, or dealing with su too hard Mostly it&039;s running herd on about three thousand people Between h"

"Ripley?"

"My sister She&039;s the other island cop Todds have been island cops for five generations That&039;s looking real nice," he said, gesturing toward her work-in-progress with his glass

"Do you think?" She sat back on her heels She&039;dinto the pot, stuck in some of the vinca It didn&039;t look haphazard as she&039;d feared it ht It looked cheerful And so did her face when she lifted it "It&039;s ot a knack Ought to wear a hat, though Fair skin like yours is going to burn if you stay out long"

"Oh" She rubbed the back of her hand over her nose "Probably"

"Guess you didn&039;t have a garden in Boston"

"No" She filled the second pot with soil "I wasn&039;t there very long It wasn&039;t my place"

"I knohat you mean I&039;ve spent some time on the mainland Never felt home Your folks still in the Midwest?"

"My parents are dead"

"I&039;eranium into the new pot "Is this conversation, Sheriff, or an inquiry?"

"Conversation" He picked up a plant that was just out of her reach and held it A cautious woman, he decided In his experience cautious people usually had a reason "Any point in , never been arrested And I&039; for trouble"

"That about covers it" He handed her the plant "It&039;s a s Mostly friendly Curiosity coh"

"I suppose" She couldn&039;t afford to alienate him, she reminded herself She couldn&039;t afford to alienate anyone "Look, I&039;ve been traveling for a while now, and I&039; for work and a quiet place to live"

"Looks like you found both" He got to his feet "I appreciate the lemonade"

"You&039;re welco You&039;ve got a knack for it, all right Afternoon, Miz Channing"

"Afternoon, Sheriff"

As he walked back to his car he tallied up what he&039;d learned about her She was alone in the world, wary of cops, prickly about questions She was a woman of simple tastes and skittish nerves And for reasons he couldn&039;t quite fathom, she just didn&039;t quite add up for hilanced at her car as he crossed to his own, scanned the license plate The Massachusetts tag looked brand spanking new Wouldn&039;t hurt to run it, he thought Just to settle his ht not have been looking for trouble, but she wasn&039;t a stranger to it

Nell served apple turnovers and lattes to the young couple by theand then cleared an adjoining table A trio of wo the stacks, and she suspected they&039;d be lured into the cafe section before long

With her hands full offroulls that circled and dived Buoys bobbed in a sea that was soft and green today A white pleasure boat, sails fat ind, ski the surface

Once she&039;d sailed on another sea, in another life It was one of the few pleasures she took fro on waves Odd, wasn&039;t it, that the sea had always called to her? It had changed her life And had taken it

Now, this new sea had given her another life

Sht, she turned and bumped solidly into Zack Even as he took her ar back "I&039; on you? I&039; where-"

"No har handles and, careful not to touch her again, took them from her "I was in your way Nice boat"

"Yes" She sidestepped, hurried back to the counter, behind it She hated having anyone co paid to watch boats Can I get you anything?"

"Take a breath, Nell"

"What?"

"Take a breath" He said it gently as he set the ain"

"I&039;ether as she scooped them off the counter "I didn&039;t expect to have anyone hulking around behind me"

His lips twitched "That&039;s better I&039;ll take one of those turnovers and a large coffee to go Did you finish your planting?"

"Nearly" She didn&039;t want to talk to him, so she busied herself with the coffee She didn&039;t want to have the island copher out of those sharp green eyes

"Maybe you canto your flowers" He laid a bag on the counter

"What is it?"

"Garden tool" He counted out his money, set that on the counter as well

She wiped her hands on her apron, scowled But curiosity pushed her into opening the bag Baffled humor lit her eyes as she studied the perfectly ridiculous rolled-brim straw hat Foolish fake flowers danced around the crown

"This is the silliest hat I&039;ve ever seen"

"Oh, there were sillier," he assured her "But it&039;ll keep the sun fro your nose"

"It&039;s very considerate of you, but you shouldn&039;t-"

"Around here it&039;s called being neighborly" The beeper on his belt signaled "Well, back to work"

She ed to wait until he was halfway down the steps before she snatched the hat and dashed into the kitchen to try it on in the reflection of the stove hood

Ripley Todd poured herself another cup of coffee and sipped it while looking out the frontof the station house It had been a quiet , and that was just the way she liked it

But there was sonore it, but so was in the air It was easier to tell herself it was overstimulation from the week she&039;d spent in Boston

Not that she hadn&039;t enjoyed herself She had The law enforceiven her food for thought She liked police work, the routine and detail of it But the demands and chaos of the city wore on her, even in that short a time

Zack would&039;ve said it was simply that she didn&039;t like people overue with hiht of hi down the street It would, she estiood ten minutes to make the half block People stopped hiht, people just liked being around him He had a kind of she didn&039;t want to use the word "aura" It was too Mia-like Air, she decided Zack just had the kind of air about his They knew if they took their troubles to him, he&039;d have the answer, or take the time to find it

Zack was a sociable creature, Ripley mused Affable and patient and consistently fair No one would accuse her of being any of those things