“Productive. Long. Yours?”
“Pretty fantastic so far. And I’m about to have a tea party with a princess, so it’s going to get even better.”
The crazy thing was he looked genuinely delighted to be roped into a tea party with a four-year-old and a bunch of stuffed animals. The high-powered Ivy League lawyer was sitting in the grass, wearing a pink crown, and grinning ear-to-ear.
She went in to start supper and was surprised to see he’d already started it. Rice was steaming in the rice cooker. Chicken breasts marinating in something that smelled of lemon and rosemary in the frig.
“Hank kicked me out of his bathroom early, so I went to the store.”
“Why did he kick you out?” she asked, pulling out salad ingredients.
Lily answered before he could. “Mr. Reno got sent home for being sassy.”
“Is that so?” Grace grinned. “I guess Mr. Reno is in a good mood today.”
Grace chopped raw vegetables and watched him move around the kitchen as if this was his home. Shockingly, it didn’t bother her. It was nice having him around all the time.
He put the chicken in the pan, and it sizzled temptingly. The afternoon sun streamed through the kitchen window casting buttery light that made the space look like a greeting card for a few minutes. Lily came in from the back porch to present Grace with a light blue crown, and they all sat down to eat wearing their crowns.
Lily was so tickled she could bust, and Reno wasn’t far behind her. Grace just shook her head and went along with it.
She asked how Hank’s bathroom was coming, and he told her the boring shower tile had been installed. He also mentioned Madison was coming Friday and wanted to meet her and Lily. He asked if she was busy Friday night because Hank had invited them to supper.
“That sounds fun.”
Reno smiled at her, the expression in his face communicating clearly that he’d been asking her out on a date in case she’d missed that part. She smiled back, communicating clearly that she hadn’t missed that part. His smile got even bigger.
“Madison will love you,” he said.
“Madison will love Lily.”
“That too,” he replied easily.
Cooper called after supper, and Reno took it on the back porch. The frogs were starting up, and through the screen door she could hear his voice but not his words. She washed the dishes. She wiped the counters. She listened to Lily explain to Marshmallow the proper way to be a princess.
He came back in. “Cooper has updates.”
“Porch after bedtime?” she responded.
“Perfect.”
The lake had gone copper and was going black. The moon was a thin curl just clearing the trees. She sat on the couch with Marshmallow climbing into her lap with the entitlement of a queen.
Reno sat next to her with his bad leg propped on the coffee table.
“All right,” she said. “Tell me.”
He told her evenly that Curtis Marchand had been spotted driving into Cobbler Cove yesterday afternoon. This morning, Apple Pie Creek police found a back way out of his mother’s ski chalet that he must have used to slip past the deputy keeping an eye on him. Curtis had driven down Main Street, slowed by the bakery, gone around the block twice, driven past Lily’s preschool, driven past the cottage, and driven home. Never stopped, didn’t appear to take pictures. Cooper had personally tailed him in an unmarked car the whole time.
Reno relayed a message from Cooper to Grace that she and Lily had never been in any danger. He’d been on Curtis every second. Also, the Apple Pie Creek police had put a man on the back way out of the Marchand place now, as well.
She was not going to do anything stupid like cry. She wasn’t.
“Is that all?” she managed to ask reasonably calmly.
“There’s something else. The Apple Pie PD told Cooper that Tara Marchand visited a new a law office in Apple Pie Creek that specialized in civil law suits. The Apple Pie Creek sheriff, as a favor to Clint Wheeler, had an off-the-record chat with the owner of the law firm and found out that Mrs. Marchand was planning to file a lawsuit against what the lawyer described as a business rival who’s stealing customers from Mrs. Marchand’s bakery.
Cooper thinks she’s suing me? What for? I’ve never even met the woman, let alone stolen anyone’s customers.”
