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"And howthe worst

"About a hundred bucks"

Jackie’s head whipped up She raised an eyebrow atit

"Okay If I toss in another fifty, can they help rinned "This subdivision is full of perfect lawns and Stepford wives Your neighbors aren’t going to be happy"

"Nope"

"See if your association will give you a per a kick out of this I had the feeling that thu her nose at authority revved her up

"You sure about this, Paige?" asked Jackie The voice of reason But I wasn’t feeling particularly reasonable

"No," I answered "I’ it anyway"

CHAPTER 9

Excerpt froine you are dealing with a s into traffic At first, you ader Next, you threaten punishether Neither of these solutions is particularly desirable They both teach the child nothing

Forwith an employee who has lost her way offers sis or write-ups, the threat of dis--these tactics are only rarely necessary and ignore the real issue at hand

Your eed and seeks attention

So youDraw a finish line Engrave a trophy

Set the standard necessary for achieveht about Petra’s words onher ideas over and over The one well, and Lukas had set afor later in the day to discuss the next step forward Rhiannon, Byron, and Seth had stayed pretty tight-lipped all week, and Jackie and I tossed around ideas about what itus a chance? What would have seeo was now a definite possibility, and I had to adood

And, if Landon were ours, would Lukas give ospel of St Petra, then yes, it see for -time Was I?

It was market day, which meant I parked a few blocks fro inside, but I i brisk business I hoped so, because the sky, heavy and gray, promised a downpour before the afternoon was out

I stopped in my tracks Rain The possibility hadn’t occurred to me Mykia’s men had showed up a few days before, otten a Brazilian--only a single strip of grass grew along Mr Eckhardt’s fence line, hugging his property The friendly, efficient ain, leaving a dark, blank canvas for et over to the nursery to pick up so stones but hadn’t been able to find the ti ho back to my car and dash home I could buy a tarp on the way I could call the lawn service and pay a fortune for a sod e earlymyself professionally vulnerable What was the worst that could happen? A little runoff onto the sidewalk? Mykia had promised the men would dump some mulch on the corner of my property Maybe the weather would hold out, and I could buy the plants on the way hoet them in before it rained