LITMIR.BIZ

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old cottage.

      She smiled as she reheated a pot of coffee and glanced at the kitchen. Large enough for a table pushed against one wall, the cozy room boasted a few pine cabinets, a small expanse of wooden counter and one window surrounded by red gingham curtains that matched the three place mats stacked beneath the napkin holder and salt and pepper shakers on the table. Not much, but all she could afford.

      In addition to the kitchen there was a living room, single bath, one bedroom, a large pantry converted into her sewing room and “office” and a loft with bunk beds for the boys. Not exactly the Ritz, but comfortable enough, and what John and Bobby lacked in creature comforts was surpassed by the fact that they lived practically in the wilderness, with the lake a bare twenty yards from the front porch. Frogs, deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and birds were in abundance. Her children, whether they knew it or not, were far from deprived.

      They should be returning soon, she thought, and glanced toward the road. Each day after school they rode their bikes to a neighbor’s house where they stayed until Nadine arrived home. John was old enough to protest being “babysat,” but both boys were too young to fend for themselves even for a few hours.

      Pouring coffee into a mug, she wondered how things would have worked out if, as she’d hoped, Turner Brooks, a rancher she worked for, had shown her the least bit of interest. She’d been attracted to him for years, even fantasized that he would someday open his eyes and fall in love with her, but it hadn’t happened. He’d found his own true love with Heather Leonetti, a beautiful girl from his past, and Nadine had surprised herself in letting go of her dream so easily. Maybe she hadn’t really loved him after all. Maybe, after the pain of her divorce, Turner had seemed a safe haven—a no-nonsense cowboy who talked straight and didn’t promise her the moon.

      Unlike the other men in her life.

      Sam, her husband, had been a dreamer who’d spent too many hours drinking to actually make any of his plans come together, and the other man—the one to whom she’d given her heart so many years ago—was a forbidden and bitter thought.

      Hayden Garreth Monroe IV. Even his name sounded as if it had been hammered in silver. At one time Hayden had been the richest boy in town, with only the Fitzpatrick boys, his cousins, for rivals to the title. And she’d been silly enough, for a brief period, to think that he cared for her.

      Stupid, stupid girl. Well, that was all a long time ago, thank God.

      She heard gravel crunching on the drive and knew the boys and their bicycles had arrived. Hershel, the mutt they’d inherited when someone had dumped him as a half-grown pup, yipped excitedly at the back door. With the pounding of quick feet and a few insults hurled at each other, the boys scrambled into the house, Hershel jumping at their heels.

      “Shoes!” Nadine said automatically.

      “Aw, Mom!” John complained, his face an angry pout as he kicked off a pair of high-tops.

      Bobby, her seven-year-old, did the same, black Converse sneakers flying against the wall as he shed the shoes and made a beeline in his stocking feet for the cookie jar.

      “Hey, wait a minute!” John ordered, concerned lest he somehow not get as many cookies as his younger brother.

      “You both wait a minute,” Nadine interjected, grabbing John by his thin shoulders and hugging him. “The least you could do is say hello and tell me how your day went at school.”

      “Hello,” Bobby said cheerily, snatching two peanut-butter cookies before the jar was wrested away from him by John. “I got a B on my spelling test.”

      “That’s great.”

      “Yeah, well, I got a ‘biff,’” John retorted with a touch of defiance as he snagged a couple of cookies for himself.

      “A what?”

      “He got put up against the wall at recess,” Bobby eagerly explained. “By the duty.”

      “Why?”

      “’Cause she said I said a bad word, but I didn’t, Mom, honest. It was Katie Osgood. She said the S word.”

      “I think I’ve heard enough. But I don’t want to hear that you’ve been saying anything that even brushes upon swearing. Got it?”

      “Yeah, sure,” John said sullenly, looking at the floor. “Uh, Mrs. Zalinski’s gonna call you.”

      Nadine’s lungs tightened at the mention of John’s teacher. “Why?”

      “‘Cause she thinks I was cheating on a test, and I wasn’t, Mom, really. Katie Osgood asked to use my pencil and I told her to buzz off and—”

      “Stay away from Katie Osgood,” Nadine cut in, and John, now that his admission was over, muttered something about Katie being a dweeb and followed Bobby into the living room. Hershel, eyes fixed on the cookies, bounded after the boys, his black-and-white tail wagging wildly.

      The phone rang and Nadine sent up a silent prayer for her confrontation with the teacher. John was always having trouble in school. He, more than Bobby, had shown open defiance and anger since her divorce nearly two years before.

      “Hello?” she answered as the theme music for the boys’ favorite cartoon show filtered in from the living room.

      “Mrs. Warne?” The voice was cool and male. Principal Strand! Nadine braced herself.

      “Yes.”

      “This is William Bradworth of Smythe, Mills and Bradworth in San Francisco. I represent the estate of Hayden Garreth Monroe III....”

      Nadine’s heart nearly stopped beating and her stomach curled into a hard knot of disgust. Hayden Garreth Monroe III had been the catalyst who had started the steady decline of her family. She’d only met him once, years before, but the man was brutal—a cutthroat businessman who had stepped on anyone and anything to get what he wanted. Including her father. In Nadine’s estimation, Monroe was a criminal. She felt little remorse that he was dead.

      “What do you want, Mr. Bradworth?”

      “Your name was given to me by Velma Swaggart. I’m looking for a professional to do some housekeeping.” At this moment in time, Nadine would gladly have strangled her aunt Velma. Just the name Monroe should have been enough of a clue for Velma to come up with another maid service. “So I’m willing to pay you the going rate to clean the house at 1451 Lakeshore Drive,” Bradworth continued, and Nadine held back a hot retort.

      Instead she stretched the phone cord taut so that she could look through the window and across the lake. Far in the distance, on the north shore, surrounded by tall redwood and pine trees, the Monroe summer home sprawled upon an acre of prime lakefront property.

      “The job would entail a thorough cleaning and I’d want a report on the repairs needed. If you could find someone in the area to fix up the place, I’d like their names—”

      “I’ll have to think about it, Mr. Bradworth,” she said, deciding not to cut the man off too quickly, though she would have liked to have sent him and his offer packing. But right now, money was tight. Very tight. Aunt Velma knew that she was hungry and Velma had probably swallowed her own pride in giving out Nadine’s name.

      There was a deep pause on the other end of the line. Obviously Mr. Bradworth wasn’t used to being put off. “I’ll need an answer by tomorrow afternoon,” he said curtly.

      “You’ll have one,” Nadine replied, and silently cursed herself for looking a gift horse in the mouth. Who cared where the money came from? She needed cash to fix up her car, and Christmas was coming.... How would she afford to buy the boys the things they needed? But to take money from old man Monroe’s estate? She shuddered as she hung up the phone.

      Her eyes clouded as she walked out the back door and along the path that skirted the house and led down to the dock. A stiff, November wind had turned, causing whitecaps to form on the lake’s usually smooth surface. She remembered the old legend of the lake, conceived

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