He found himself laughing back. "She was. She always thought the best of people, and I can't tell you how many times that got her into trouble."

He lay back in the grassy shade of the giant movie screen, but this time he let the happy memories in. One after another, they came back to him.

A bee droned nearby. Crickets sawed away. Rachel's sun-scented hair blew across his lips.

His eyes grew heavy. He slept.

The next evening Rachel and Edward helped Kristy unpack. Kristy's new one-bedroom condo was small and charming, with a tiny patio and a compact kitchen complete with a skylight. The walls sparkled with fresh white paint and everything smelled new.

Her furniture had arrived from storage that day. It was mostly made up of the family pieces Kristy's parents hadn't wanted when they'd moved to Florida, and now Kristy was regarding all of it with displeasure.

Keeping her voice low, so no one but Rachel could hear, she said, "I know I don't have the money to replace this stuff, but it doesn't… I don't know. It doesn't fit me anymore." She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Listen to me. Five days ago I got my hair cut and bought some new clothes. Now I think I'm a different person. I'm probably just feeling guilty about not moving to Florida like they want."

"This past week has been hard on you." Rachel placed the last of the glasses on a cupboard shelf that had already been lined with blue-and-lavender shelf paper. "And don't be depressed about the furniture. They're basic pieces. You can brighten them up with pillows, hang some museum posters. It'll look terrific when you're done."

"I suppose."

Edward strutted out of the bedroom. "We need a Phillips 'crewdriver to fix the bed. You got one?"

Kristy walked over to her small, neatly arranged tool kit, which sat open on the white counter that divided the galley kitchen from the condo's living area. "Try this."

With an air of self-importance that made Rachel smile, Edward took the screwdriver and swaggered off to join Ethan in the bedroom. Ethan Bonner might be at the top of Kristy's grudge list right now, but his generosity toward Edward made it hard for Rachel to hold on to her dislike. This was the first time her son had been given a chance to do real work with an adult male, and he was reveling in it.

Kristy glared toward the bedroom and hissed under her breath, "Ethan was awful Thursday night at the Mountaineer, but he's been acting as if nothing happened."

"I suspect he's having as hard a time forgetting about it as you are."

"Ha."

Rachel smiled and hugged her disgruntled friend. Tonight Kristy wore a bright-red T-shirt tucked into a pair of brand-new jeans. Her makeup had worn off, and she'd traded in her gold sandals for a pair of worn sneakers, so there was nothing overtly sexual about her dress, but Rachel had noticed the way Ethan's eyes had lingered on her anyway.

"I've wasted all these years mooning over an immature hypocrite, but I'm not doing it any longer!"

If Kristy got much louder, Ethan would hear her, but Rachel had interfered enough, and she didn't say anything.

"I saved most of my money while I was living at home, so I've got enough to go back to school. I only need a few classes to finish up my degree in early-childhood education, and I shouldn't have any trouble getting a job as a teacher's aide to help out with my mortgage payments until I'm finished."

"That's wonderful."

"I wish I'd done this years ago."

"Maybe you weren't ready until now."

"I guess." Kristy gave her a wistful smile. "It's nice, you know. For the first time in my life, I don't feel invisible."

Rachel suspected that came more from Kristy's mindset than her cosmetic changes, but she kept her opinion to herself.

Ethan appeared from the back bedroom with Edward at his side. "All done. Why don't Edward and I get started on that bookcase?"

"Thanks, but I'm not ready to put it up yet." Kristy spoke with a brusqueness that bordered on rudeness.

"All right. We can hook up the television."

"You've done enough, Ethan. Thanks anyway."

She couldn't have been more clearly dismissing him, but Ethan refused to take the hint and leave. "Come on, Edward. Let's see what we can do with that sticky bathroom door."

"The builder's sending someone to take care of it tomorrow. I don't really have anything else, Ethan. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

This was too direct to ignore, and as he returned the tools to the toolbox and made his way to the door, Rachel began to feel sorry for the gorgeous Pastor Bonner.

The windows were dark. Ever since the incident with the burning cross, Gabe had known that Rachel couldn't stay alone on Heartache Mountain. With Kristy gone, he was afraid for her.

He'd planned to get to the cottage earlier, but Ethan had stopped by, and Gabe had been forced to listen to a lengthy monologue about how rude Kristy had been to him, then ignore some none-too-subtle hints that Rachel was after his money: That was definitely true, but not in the way Ethan meant. One thing had led to another, and now it was nearly midnight.

He parked the truck by the garage and sat there in the dark for a moment, his thoughts in turmoil. Talking about Cherry this afternoon with Rachel, even so briefly, had begun to ease something inside him. If only Rachel lived in the cottage by herself, moving in might not be so complicated. But he would also have to deal with her son, and just the thought of being around that pale, silent little boy made the blackness descend all over again.

The child was an innocent, and he'd tried to argue himself out of his feelings dozens of times, but he couldn't. Whenever he looked at Edward, he thought of Jamie, and how the worthier child had died.

He drew in a sharp breath. The thought was ugly. Unforgivable.

He pushed it away as he took his suitcase from the truck and headed toward the house. Even though the night was cloudy and none of the outside lights were on, he had no trouble making his way. He'd spent hundreds of nights at this cottage when he was a child.

How many times had he and Cal slipped through a back window after Annie had gone to bed so they could explore? Ethan had been too young to go with them, and he still complained about having missed out on some of Gabe and Cal's best adventures.

An owl hooted in the distance as Gabe came around the side of the house. His shoes made a soft swishing sound in the grass, and his keys jingled in his hand.

"Stay where you are!"

Rachel's shadow loomed on the, front porch, tall and straight. His lips framed a wisecrack, but, as he made out his grandmother's old shotgun pointed at his chest, he decided being a smart-ass wasn't a good idea.

"I've got a gun, and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"It's me. Damn, Rachel. You sound like a bad detective movie."

She dropped the barrel of the shotgun. "Gabe? What are you doing out there? You scared the life out of me!"

"I came up here to defend you," he said dryly.

"It's the middle of the night."

"I planned to arrive earlier, but I ran into a little trouble with Ethan."

"Your brother is a moron."

"He's crazy about you, too." He stepped up on the porch and took the shotgun away from her with his free hand.

She reached inside the screen door to flick on the yellow porch light. His mouth went dry as he saw her standing there with bare feet, bare legs, and the same blue workshirt she'd been wearing the morning the house was vandalized. Her rumpled curls looked like ancient gold in the porch light.

"What's that?" she asked.

"As you can see, it's a suitcase. I'm moving in for a while." "Did Kristy put you up to this?"

"No. Kristy's worried, but this is my idea. As long as she was living here, I never believed the danger to you would go beyond threats, but with her gone, you're more vulnerable."

He walked into the living room where he set down his suitcase and checked the shotgun. It wasn't loaded, so he gave it back. At the same time, he thought about the.38 he'd locked up before he left the house. Keeping a loaded gun next to his bed had suddenly seemed obscene. "Put that away."

"You don't think I can take care of myself, do you? Well, I can, so just hop back in that redneck truck of yours and go away."

He couldn't quite hold back a smile. She did that to him. "Save it, Rach. You've never been so glad to see anybody in your life, and you know it."

She made a face. "Are you really moving in?"

"I have enough trouble sleeping as it is without worrying about what's going on up here."

"I don't need a baby-sitter, but I guess I wouldn't mind a little company."

That, he knew, was the closest he'd get to an acknowledgment that she was worried. She disappeared to put the shotgun away, and he carried his suitcase down the back hallway to his grandmother's old bedroom, which was now empty of Kristy's things. As he gazed around at the old rough-hewn bed and the rocker in the corner, he remembered how scared he'd get at night when he was little. He used to sneak in here and crawl in with Annie. He could have climbed in with Cal, but he hadn't wanted his older brother to know that he was afraid. One time, though, he'd slipped in with his grandmother only to discover that his big brother was already there.

He heard Rachel behind him and turned. She looked rumpled and beautiful. The V-shaped crease in her cheek told him she'd been asleep when he'd driven up. He studied the shirt she was wearing more closely and felt vaguely irritated. "Don't you have anything else to sleep in?"

"What's wrong with this?"

"It's Cal's. If you need a shirt, you can wear one of mine." He tossed his suitcase on the bed, opened it, and yanked out a shirt that was clean, but marked here and there with various stains that hadn't come out in the laundry.