“Last week,” she said as she pushed to her feet. She swayed for a second, then made her way back to her bedroom where she did her best to get out of her clothes. The shirt was easy, as was the bra. But her pants proved insurmountable, so she left them on, along with her socks. She’d already lost her shoes somewhere.

She dug a nightgown out of a drawer, although the act of bending over nearly had her passing out. She managed to pull the nightgown over her head, then she had to fall onto the bed and sleep.

She came awake to the sound of someone pounding on the door. The loudness of the banging, along with the semi-frantic speed told her that whoever it was had been at it for a while.

“I’m okay,” she said, though her voice sounded faint and scratchy. She pushed into a sitting position, then forced herself to her feet. Once there it wasn’t too hard to sort of walk and bump her way along the hallway wall.

“It’s like pinball,” she said with a giggle as she reached for the front door. “I want extra points.”

That statement was made as Riley pushed inside. “Points for what?” he asked as he looked her over, then touched her face. “You have a fever.”

“Huh.” She pointed at the bag in his arms. “Whattcha got? Something for me?”

She took a step forward, intending to look inside the bag. But somehow her feet got caught or didn’t move or something because she was falling and falling and there didn’t seem to be a way to stop herself.

Then big strong arms scooped her up and she was flying down the hall and into her bedroom.

“Tylenol for fever,” Riley said as he set her on the mattress. “I called Diane and asked. Then I bought some. And soup. But I don’t think I should leave you alone.”

She sank back on the bed and sighed. “Then you should stay. It’s fine with me.” Her eyes slowly closed for a second, before she forced them open again. “The cake. You have to take the cake. It’s Saturday, right?”

“Still. Yes.” He sat down next to her and brushed the hair off her forehead. “I’m going to call your sister. Give me her number.”

“Which one?”

“She has more than one phone number?”

“What? No. Which sister. Alexis. Call Alexis. But don’t bother her. I’m fine.”

She read off the number. Riley punched it into his cell phone and started speaking. Gracie did her best to listen. She wanted to tell him not to bother, that she would survive on her own. Had he brought soup? Was there soup?

“She’ll be here in a couple of hours,” he said. “I’ll wait.”

That sounded good to her, except…“The cake. Just take it over now, please. They’ve got to be worried. It’s in boxes.”

“More than one?”

She nodded, then wished she hadn’t when her head began to ache. “Five. I was going to connect them like a street thing. You know. A map or whatever, but just set them out so they look nice. There are five boxes. Did I say that?”

“Yes. Why are you wearing your jeans under your nightgown?”

“They were too hard to get off.”

“I can help with that.”

He bent over her and quickly removed her jeans, then pulled down her nightgown.

“Slide under the covers,” he said. “I’ll tuck you in.”

She liked the sound of that. She liked having him around. In the back of her mind, a thought nagged, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Was she supposed to tell him something? Or was she keeping a secret?

“How’s the campaign going?” she asked.

“Good.”

He didn’t look at her as he spoke, which made her wonder if he was telling the truth. Was there-

Oh! She loved him! That was it. The secret. She found herself wanting to blurt it out right now. To say the words and see how he reacted. If he cared about her, maybe it would be a good thing. Maybe-

“Gracie?”

She heard him speak her name, but the sounds came from far, far away. Her eyes were far too heavy to open. Everything was heavy. And hot. And just too…

GRACIE ROLLED OVER and found herself drenched. Her body was cold and chilled, her nightgown soaked. Her eyes popped open and she looked around, half expecting to see the ocean in her bedroom.

Instead Alexis sat on a chair in the corner. She looked up and smiled. “Are you sane again?”

Gracie blinked at her. “When wasn’t I?”

“You’ve been out of it ever since I got here. Riley said he got a couple of Tylenol down you and I guess they kicked in. Or you beat the fever. You were burning up for a while. How do you feel now?”

“Like I just fell into a pool.”

Alexis stood and walked to the bed. “That means the fever’s broken. Good for you.” She touched her sister’s forehead. “Yup. Cool to the touch. Are you hungry?”

Gracie considered the question. “Starving. I don’t remember falling asleep. I don’t remember much of anything. Oh. The cake for the historical society.”

“Riley’s taking care of it. You called him. Remember?”

“Not really.” She had a few hazy images that were more dreamlike than anything else. “Whatever bug I picked up was strong, but short-lived. I think I’m okay now.”

“Why don’t you take it easy? I’ll go fix some soup and toast for you.” Alexis fingered the damp sheets. “Can you move to the sofa? You can lay down there and I’ll change these later.”

“You don’t have to do all that for me. It’s the weekend. What about Zeke? Shouldn’t you be with him?”

“Don’t worry about it. He’s working all day on Riley’s campaign then picking me up about six so I can go with him to see him do stand-up at a club in Ventura tonight.”

“Sounds like fun.”

Gracie sat up and tested her equilibrium. The walls and floor stayed exactly where they were supposed to. She felt tired and a little weak, but otherwise, fine.

Alexis helped her to her feet, then led her to the sofa in the living room. As she went to work in the kitchen, Gracie had the thought that she wouldn’t have expected her sister to come through for her like this. Which just went to show that she’d pretty much been wrong about every member of her family. Maybe in the future she should simply let them be and not try to predict or assign value judgments.

“What does Zeke have to do today for Riley?” she asked as Alexis puttered in the kitchen. “Are they still going door-to-door?”

“Not exactly.”

“Why not? The election is in a few days.”

There was a long silence, as if Alexis was considering what to say. The longer her sister was quiet, the more Gracie began to wonder what she didn’t know.

“Alexis,” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Everything is great. Really.”

Uh-huh. As if Gracie would believe that high, tight voice. “You’re not a good liar. Tell me.”

Alexis appeared in the doorway. “Zeke wasn’t supposed to say anything to me. If Riley knew I knew, he would never have asked me to come over.”

Gracie’s stomach tightened and it had nothing to do with acid or lack of food. “What do you know?”

Her sister shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Just that Riley’s poll numbers are really down. They went up when everyone thought the two of you were together, but since the debate, they’ve been falling. The people in town are taking your side in this, which is really nice for you. But they hate Riley because, well, you know.”

Gracie didn’t know but she could guess. Because of those stupid newspaper stories, half the town felt as if they knew her. Now, all these years later, Riley was the bad guy for not falling in love with her and giving her what they thought was her happy ending.

Of course the irony of the situation was that she really was in love with Riley and she wanted to be with him, but that was her business, not theirs.

“Is he going to lose?” Gracie asked quietly.

Alexis nodded.

Ninety-seven million dollars gone because of her.

“I have to fix this,” she said.

“How?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go talk to him when he’s done delivering the cake and we’ll come up with something.”

“It’s going to take a miracle,” Alexis told her.

Gracie wished she had one of those in the corner of her suitcase. As she was fresh out, she would have to think of something else.

THERE WERE SEVERAL security guards on duty at the large house on the hill. Riley had never paid much attention to the historic value of some of the older homes in Los Lobos, but now as he walked up the wide front steps, he felt as if he were stepping back in history.

The Victorian mansion had been restored to its original fussiness. Rockers and tables were scattered across the long front porch. Flowers decorated the pillars.

“Can I help you?” a rent-a-cop said from his position by the front door.

“I’m delivering the cake for the fund-raiser tonight,” Riley said, motioning to the large box in his arms. “There are four more of these in my car.”

“Sure thing. Go on up. Then drive around back and use the rear entrance. It’ll be closer for you.”

“Thanks.” Riley jerked his head to the three guards by the driveway and the two security vans set up by the fence. “Why all the firepower?”

“A lot of items are on loan,” the guard told him. “Apparently they’re worth so much, the insurance company insisted.” He grinned. “So don’t try anything.”

“Not me. I’m just the guy with the cake.”

Riley followed his directions to the main reception area in the ballroom on the second floor. As he walked into the huge open room, he saw the tables set up for the buffet, two bars and a lace covered table complete with several pink bakery boxes.

“What the hell?” he muttered as he walked closer.

He set down his box and looked at the others. It was a cake. One that looked amazingly similar to the one Gracie had baked. Nearly identical. The same basket weave on the side, the same flowers. Except, now that he looked more closely, he saw the weave was crooked and the individual pieces of it were poorly done and broken. The flowers looked as if they’d spent one too many nights out on the town.