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The last weeks of summer passed in a blur Days were filled ork, with plans for the jobs she&039;d won and proposals for more

Once the weather turned she would lose the summer-people aspect of her business So she would be the clever ant, Nell decided, who carefully prepared for winter

She&039;d solicit jobs for holiday parties, for Super Bowl Sunday, for cabin fever victi her for their events, se to do otherwise

Nights were nearly always spent with Zack-taking advantage of the final burst of war sails , luxurious love in the cozy nest of her bed

Once she lit red candles for passion They seemed to work exceptionally well

At least two evenings a week she worked with Mia on what she thought of as her ritual lessons

And at dawn she was baking in her kitchen

The life she&039;d always looked for was all around her, and more She had a power inside her that ran like silver And love that gloar her, quietly, patiently The waiting look Each tiuilt, a ripple of unease And each tinored it, she disappointed both of them

She could rationalize it She was happy, and entitled to a time of peace and pleasure Only a year before, she&039;d risked her life, and would have forfeited it, rather than live trapped and afraid

For so , she&039;d been alone, constantly on the ht in cold sweats from dreams she couldn&039;t face even in the dark

If she&039;d locked that tiht?

It was the now thatZack all she could of the now

As summer slipped into fall she was convinced of it, and of the solidity of her haven on Three Sisters

With her latest kitchen catalogs and her new subscription to Saveur under her arh Street toward the er to vie England foliage at its peak

She couldn&039;t blaes of the island were covered with a brilliant patchwork of flaes fro into her ooods as the leaves took on fire There were ti just to see the slow roll of fog tu, lassy frost thening sun until it beaded on the grass like tears on lashes

Rains swept in, pounded the beaches, the cliffs, then swept out again until it see under a glass doht Safe and secure and away froed beyond sea and inlet

With the brisk wind sneaking up her sweater, she waved at familiar faces, paused briefly at the crosswalk to check traffic, then jogged carelessly into the market for the pork chops she intended to make for dinner

Pamela Stevens, on an iave a little cry of surprise and rolled down theof their rented BMW sedan

"I&039; at any of these shops, Paht place to park"

"I&039;ve just seen a ghost" Pamela dropped back on the seat, laid a hand over her heart

"It&039;s witches around here, Paton Evan Rehost"

"Don&039;t knohy in God&039;s name she would come all the way out here to haunt anybody Can&039;t even find a da The woman could&039;ve been her double, except for the hair and the clothes Helen wouldn&039;t have been caught dead in that frightful sweater" She craned her neck to try to keep the o back and get a closer look"

"As soon as I find a parking place"

"It looked just like her," Paave me such a jolt Poor Helen I was one of the last people who spoke to her before that terrible accident"

"And so you said, a hundred times for sixlike that stays with you" Bristling, Pahtened in her seat, sent her nose in the air "I was very fond of her She and Evan were a beautiful couple She was so young and pretty, with everything to live for When soic like that happens, it reer"

By the ti her husband back to the roceries and trying to decide between couscous and a spicy new sauce she wanted to try out on red potato wedges

She decided to decide later, and flipping on the portable stereo Zack had left at her cottage, she settled doith Alanis Morissette and her issue of Saveur

While she crunched on an apple froan to scribble ideas sparked from an article on artichokes

She moved from there to a feature on Australian wines and noted the writer&039;s opinion of the best values

The sound of footsteps didn&039;t jolt her now, but gave her a warlanced over to watch Zack come in

"A little early for the upholder of law and order to call it a day, isn&039;t it?"

"I swapped some time with Ripley"

"What&039;s in the box?"

"A present"

"For ot up, stepped hurriedly to the counter Her led and burned inside her

"A food processor Corade, top of the line" With reverent hands, she stroked the box the way soht stroketo s into an electric socket for a gift, he&039;d better be fully paid up on his life insurance But I didn&039;t think that rule applied here"

"It&039;s the best on the market I&039;ve wanted it forever"

"I&039;ve seen you ogling it in the catalog a few tiht her when she launched herself into his ar to need that life insurance"

"I love it, I love it, I love it" She finished with a hard, s kiss, then leaped down to attack the box "But it&039;s outrageously expensive I shouldn&039;t let you give ht out of the blue But I&039; it"

"It&039;s rude to turn down a gift, and anyway, it&039;s not out of the blue A day early, but I didn&039;t think that mattered Happy birthday"

"My birthday&039;s in April, but I&039;ht herself The pulse began to throb in her teton&039;s birthday was in April Nell Channing&039;s was listed clearly on all identification as September nineteenth

"I don&039;t knohat I was thinking Slippedwith damp, she wiped theot abouther the gift curdled, left a sour ball in his belly "Don&039;t do that Keeping things to yourself is one thing Lying to my face is another"

"I&039;m sorry" She bit down hard on her lip, tasted shame

"So am I" Because he wanted her to look at hi for you to take the step, Nell, but you don&039;t You sleep withback there You talk to me about what you hope to do tomorrow, and you listen when I talk to you But there&039;re no yesterdays"

He&039;d tried not to dwell on that, tried to tell himself, as he&039;d told Ripley, that it wasn&039;t important But now, slapped in the face with it, he couldn&039;t pretend

"You let me into your life from the day you stepped onto the island"

It was true, perfectly true What point would there be in denying it? "Forbefore then matters anymore"

"If it didn&039;t, you wouldn&039;t have to lie to me"

Panic wanted to climb into her throat She countered it with a snap of temper "What difference does it make if my birthday&039;s too? Why does it have to matter?"

"What matters is you don&039;t trust me That&039;s hard on me, Nell, because I&039;m in love with you"

"Oh, Zack, you can&039;t-"

"I&039; her arms to hold her still "And you know it"

And of course, that was perfectly true as well "But I don&039;t knohat to do about it I don&039;t knohat to do hat I feel for you Trusting that, trusting you, it&039;s not that simple Not for me"

"You want me to accept that, but you don&039;t want to tell me why it&039;s not that simple Play fair, Nell"

"I can&039;t" A tear spilled over, shimmered down her cheek "I&039;m sorry"

"If that&039;s the way it is, we&039;re both fooling ourselves"

He let her go and walked away

Knocking on Zack&039;s front door was one of the hardest things Nell had ever done She&039;d spent so er Now she would have to face it, head on And with little defense This was a turmoil she&039;d caused, and only she could resolve it

She walked to the front of the house because it see across the beach and up the stairs to the back Before she knocked, she rubbed her fingers over the turquoise stone she&039;d slipped into her pocket to aid her verbal coh she wasn&039;t convinced such things worked, she didn&039;t see how it could make her situation any worse

She lifted her hand, cursed herself as she lowered it again There was an old rocker on the front porch, and a pot of geraniums that were frost-burned and pathetic She wished she&039;d seen theed Zack to carry the

She squared her shoulders, knocked

Was torn between relief and despair when no one answered

Just as she&039;d given up and turned away, the door swung open

Ripley stood in leggings cropped just below the knee and a T-shirt ave Nell one long, cool stare, then leaned on the doorjamb

"Wasn&039;t sure I heard anyone knock I was lifting, and had theto talk to Zack"

"Yeah, I figured You pissed hiood It takes work to do that Me, I&039;ve had years of practice, but you must have an innate talent for it"

Nell slipped her hand in her pocket, fingered the stone She would have to get through the shield to get to the target "I know he&039;s angry with ht to apologize?"

"Sure, but if you do it with choking little sobs and flutters, you&039;re going to piss me off I&039;m a lot meaner than Zack"

"I don&039;t intend to cry and flutter" Nell&039;s own temper bubbled up as she stepped forward "And I don&039;t think Zack would appreciate you getting in the middle of this I know I don&039;t"

"Good for you" Satisfied, Ripley shifted to let Nell in "He&039;s up on the back deck, brooding through his telescope and drinking a beer But before you go up and say whatever you have to say to hi He could&039;ve looked into your background, picked the pieces apart I would have But he&039;s got standards, personal standards, so he didn&039;t"

The guilt that had settled on her since he&039;d walked out her door took on ht "He would&039;ve considered that rude"

"Right I don&039;trude So you square this with him, or deal with me"

"Understood"

"I like you, and I respect someone who takes care of business But when you "

Ripley turned toward the stairs leading to the second floor "Help yourself to a beer on the way through the kitchen I&039;ve got to finish h she&039;d have relished a tall glass of ice water to ease the burn in her throat She walked through the coh the equally untidy kitchen, and took the outside steps up to the deck

He sat in a big chair faded to gray by the weather, a bottle of Sahs and his scope tilted starward