She drove along that long, straight road with Warren Zevon howling about
werewolves in London. But this time, she didn't care if the wind tugged
at her once tidily pinned hair. She was going home, so the top was down
and her mood was light.
She had work to do, but the reports she needed to complete could be done
on her laptop at home. While her red sauce simmered on the stove, she
decided. They'd have linguini--to remind Cam of their honeymoon.
Not that this particular event seemed to be over, even if they were back
on the Shore rather than in Rome. She wondered if this wild and wicked
passion they had for each other would ever ease.
And hoped not.
Laughing at herself, she zipped into the drive. And nearly rammed her
pretty little convertible into the rear of a dull gray sedan with a
rusted bumper. Once her heart had bumped back down into its proper
place, she puzzled over it.
It certainly wasn't Cam's kind of car, she decided. He might like to
tinker with engines, but he preferred the fast and the sleek body to go
around them. This aged and sturdy body looked anything but fast.
Phillip? She let out a snort. The fastidious Phillip Quinn wouldn't have
placed his Italian-loafer-shod foot on the worn floorboard of such a
vehicle.
Ethan, then. But she found herself frowning. Pickups and Jeeps were
Ethan's style, not compact sedans that had fenders still painted with
gray primer.
They were being robbed, she thought with a jolt that turned her
heartbeat into a jackhammer. In broad daylight. No one ever thought to
lock the doors around here, and the house was sheltered from its
neighbors by trees and the marsh.
Someone was inside, picking through their things, right now. Eyes
narrowed, she slammed out of the car. They weren't getting away with it.
It was her house now, damn it, and her things, and if any half-baked
burglar thought he coulda
She trailed off as she looked into the sedan and saw the big pink
rabbit. And the car seat. A house burglar with a toddler in tow?
Grace, she realized with a sigh. It was one of Grace Monroe's cleaning
days.
City girl, she chided herself. Put the city instincts away. You're in
another place now. Feeling monumentally foolish, she returned to her own
car and hefted her briefcase and the bag of fresh produce she'd picked
up on the way home.
As she stepped onto the porch, she heard the monotonous hum of the
vacuum, underscored by the bright tinkle of a commercial on TV. Good
domestic sounds, Anna thought. And she was more than delighted that she
wasn't the one running the vacuum.
Grace nearly dropped the wand when Anna came through the door. Obviously
flustered, she stepped back, tripping the foot switch to turn the
machine off. "I'm sorry. I thought I'd be finished before anyone got
home."
"I'm early." Though her arms were full, Anna crouched in front of the
chair where Aubrey sat manically scribbling purple crayon on a picture