Page 19 (2/2)

"A good Jedi never stops in the middle of a battle"

She hunkered down and looked hiht"

He looked excited "Yeah?"

"Yeah Picking up your aunt"

His face fell "Aw, that’s no fun And you pros happen"

"Not to Jedis Bad things like not going to the park never happen to Jedis" Still holding his saber, he took off, his little feet pounding down the hallway The next noise was the slah technically, that could apply to Grace as well She followed him to his room and opened the door She saw a little boy tush and a little pug tush, both adorable, sticking out fro chair The classic "if I can’t see you, you can’t see me" pose "Toby? Tank?"

"Don’t answer," ca snort

"Gee," she said "Wherever could the Jedi warriors have gone?"

Another pug snort

And then a giggle "What a shame I’m all alone," she said "’Cause I’m really in need of a couple of Jedi warriors, the very best of the best There’s an epic battle ahead We have to save Aunt Anna"

The two tushes wriggled free, co Grace was just leading Toby outside when Josh pulled up

He got out of his car looking like the day had already been too long "Need my laptop," he said, eyes shadowed, face drawn He htening andGrace’s eyes

She wanted to ask hiiven Toby She wanted to give him a chocolate cupcake and war, her name on his lips as he came

But mostly she wanted to ask hia lot more than just fun "Hey," she said, and then rolled her eyes at how breathless she sounded

He’d been pretty far gone last night, both in alcohol and exhaustion, and she suddenly realized he aze searched hers for a long beat, but he gave nothing away Sooing?" he asked

"Anna needs ain?"

"I don’t know This is where she is" She showed him the address she’d scrawled onto a piece of paper

He frowned "That’s nowhere close to her PT" He looked at his watch "My car Let’s go"

They drove in silence Well, except for the noises Toby and his Zhu Zhu warriors werein the backseat Josh turned onto a run-down street, and they all eyeballed the apart paint, and bars on the s of the lower floors Nice

Anna was in her chair waiting on the front walk At the sight of Josh’s car, she scowled, and then again when he got out to help her

"I called Grace," she said unhappily "Not you"

"Hello to you too" He crouched in front of her, gaze narrowed "You okay?" He reached out to touch her cheek where her

She slapped his hand away "I’etan eye on a silent Anna, as huddled in the backseat Back at home, she rolled into her room, slahtsaber "Can we go to the park?"

"Not right now," Josh said

"Swiht now"

Toby tossed up his hands "You don’t let " And then he walked down the hall and slammed his bedroom door

In a perfect imitation of Anna

Josh looked like maybe he wanted to tear out his hair He moved down the hall and knocked on Anna’s door

"Go away!" she yelled

Josh strode back into the living roo vacay

"You okay?" Grace asked him

"I don’t know" He lifted his head and pinned her with his gaze "Tell ht"

"What about it?" she asked carefully, not wanting to fess up to anything he couldn’t re which she did her best to look innocent

"You could start by showing me the rest of that sexual fantasy list," he said

Okay, she thought with a blush, so he did remember

Gaze dark, he stepped toward her, but his phone went off Josh swore, grabbed his laptop, then strode to the door

Grace let out a breath, then sucked it in again when he turned back and lifted her up so that they were nose to nose

"Noe you," he said softly, then set her down, brushed a kiss over her ive up chocolate, but I’ day At the office, every patient Josh saanted to talk about Mrs Porter They were devastated His staff was devastated By the tiht, and that was saying so

He’d called ahead Toby was asleep Anna was heading out as soon as he got ho

But there was only one thing he wanted to do

Grace

The lights in the guesthouse were blazing Through the s, he could see Grace sitting on the couch, but she wasn’t alone She ith Mallory and A In front of them on the coffee table was an opened file box, and papers were scattered across the entire table, bookended by an open laptop and an adding machine

It was a visceral reminder that Grace had a whole other life outside of his

She’d taken on two more clients, which he’d heard from Dee, who’d heard it from Lucille, who’d heard it from Anderson at the hardwood store, since he was one of those clients The other new client was the ice-cream shop on the pier and the two brothers who ran it Lance and Tucker probably had no bookkeeping system at all, so Grace had her work cut out for her--not that it would be a proble everything all work out He ad wo sorry for herself, doing what she had to do to get by