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Marlowe playfully smacked him with a milkweed. “I would disagree about that but I’m too nice.”

He grinned. “Exactly. You’re nice enough to open Marlowe’s Beauty and Therapy Salon.”

She smiled and shook her head, making the sun turn her hair golden.

He decided right then that coming over to pull weeds wasn’t so bad.

CHAPTER 14

On Saturday at eleven, Jace drove to Marlowe’s house to pick her up for the river outing. Mrs. Partridge answered the door. “Marlowe will be here in a minute. I made her put on sunscreen.” Her gaze ran over Jace in his swim trunks and T-shirt. “Are you wearing some?” She said the question like it was an accusation.

“I’ve got a bottle in the car.”

Mrs. Partridge shook her head in disapproval. “See, this is what’s wrong with the younger generation. That and you live on a diet of additives and preservatives. Back in my day, we had real food and had to cook it ourselves using primitive tools like a stove and an oven. None of this microwave oven business that’s zapping who knows what into the food.”

“I’d believe your outrage,” he said, “except you were downing diet soda last Wednesday. That’s about the least healthy thing you can drink after melted plastic.”

She waved off his words. “It’s too late for me.”

Before he could say more, Marlowe appeared in the living room. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that swung back-and-forth across her shoulders. Her T-shirt slipped off one shoulder, revealing a black bathing suit strap, and those shorts … well, they weren’t doing his concentration any favors. He knew he ought to say something, but all thought had fled. He simply stared at her.

She grabbed a large canvas bag with a beach towel hanging out of it. “I’m sure you’ll have a fun day playing cribbage with Mrs. Schwarzkopf,” she told her grandmother and turned to someone that Jace couldn’t see. “Thanks for coming over.”

Marlowe shimmied past her grandmother and out the door. Mrs. Partridge called after them, “Don’t they teach you about skin cancer in medical school?”

Marlowe shut the door before he could say that, yes, they did. As Marlowe and he walked to his car, she said, “Grandma is a little crabby today. Really, I think she’s feeling left out because she doesn’t get to go to the river with us.”

Ah. Well, it wouldn’t be a good idea to invite her. She might contradict things he’d said about Marlowe to his family. Prison friends and whatnot. Jace opened the passenger side door for Marlowe. It didn’t feel so odd now, like he was taking part in some Regency play. It seemed more like an inside joke between them.

“We can take your grandmother to the river another time,” he said.

Marlowe paused before getting into the car. “You would do that for my grandma?”

“No. I’m still convinced she cheated at cards, but I would do it for you.”

Marlowe smiled. “You’re sweet.”

He wasn’t. She just made him want to be that way.

They headed toward the river, a twenty-minute drive away. Marlowe asked him about work and was interested enough in what he said that it all seemed important. In reality, since he came to Lark Springs, he’d treated more sprained ankles than anything else. People came up to hike and forgot mountain trails weren’t sidewalks.

“You have a job where you know you’re making a difference,” she said, a hint of longing in her voice. “That must be deeply satisfying.”

“I sit around studying a lot and treat the occasional person. You have a job where you help people feel more beautiful every day. That should be deeply satisfying.”

She clicked her tongue. “I guess, but somehow it doesn’t seem as superhero-ish.”

“Being a volunteer fireman is definitely not superhero work. Last week, we had to get a guy unstuck from a swing. He was thirty. Don’t ask.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Now I want to ask.”

That was another thing about Marlowe. She made him feel like he was funny and not just the more serious, boring version of Lucas.

“Sorry. Confidentiality rules,” he said.

“Give me a hint. Was there a lot of alcohol involved?”

“Of course,” he said, “but that applies to most of my calls.”