“Life on the edge,” she said as she watched a woman on the local station explain how to plant a sago palm.

A sound to BJ’s right captured her attention. She looked against the wall where she had left her suitcase. She remembered leaving the top open, but now all her clothes were arranged in a pile beside it. She sat there staring at the floor. Alittle ball of fluff stood in the middle of the clothing. Arturo looked about as happy with himself as one dog could. His backside wiggled back and forth until he sat again in his nest of garments.

“You little rat bastard.” BJ glared down at him. She bent down and easily lifted Arturo with one hand and brought him up to eye level. “You and I have to have a talk, Squirt.”

Arturo’s backside continued to wiggle until he looked like a vibrating cotton ball. Suddenly, he reached out with a tiny pink tongue and licked BJ’s nose.

“Oh, gross. Dog germs!” BJ fell back on the couch, dropping Arturo into her lap. She wiped a hand across her nose only to have the dog lick the top of her free hand. “Okay, now stop that. Stop that, I said.”

The small dog then ran back and forth across the couch, leaping over BJ’s lap. Finally, he stopped and lowered his nose, his backside high in the air, as if daring BJ to come after him. When she reached for him, he launched himself from the couch and ran along the floor. He grabbed a small toy and sped back toward the couch. He jumped up, deposited the toy in BJ’s lap, then promptly rolled onto his back.

BJ couldn’t keep from laughing. She scratched his stomach until his tongue lolled from his mouth and he looked to be utterly relaxed. “If you weren’t so damn cute, you’d be in the oven right now.”

BJ lay back on the couch and realized how tired she was. She’d taken a pain pill after lunch and was beginning to feel its effects. “Well, I’m beat, how about you?” Arturo hopped onto BJ’s stomach and did a half turn before he plopped the full length of his body down as a sign of his agreement. “Must you?”

Arturo closed his coal black eyes and let out a long breath. “Oh, all right,” BJ said with a yawn. “But these are definitely not permanent sleeping arrangements.”

It was so quiet and peaceful that she immediately fell asleep.

The neighborhood was virtually silent, an atmosphere to which BJ was unaccustomed. Living in the city all her life, she had never known what it was like to sleep without the sounds of cars, trains, and people. Perhaps it was the depth of her slumber that caused her fright when the doorbell rang.

“Whoa!” The jarring sound startled BJ to the extent that she forgot all about her broken ankle. She attempted to roll off the couch, but one leg never followed. For the second time that day, she ended up face down on the floor beside the couch. She groaned in pain as she felt around for her crutches.

With some intense grunts and growls, Arturo had his teeth clamped on one of her crutches and was desperately trying to drag it closer to the prone woman.

“Thanks, Lassie,” BJ said as her fingers wrapped around the crutch. “I’m coming!” she shouted as the bell continued to ring.

She slowly crossed the living room and entered the wide hallway that led to the front door. “Yes?” she asked the old woman standing on the porch.

“Baylor Warren?”

BJ winced at the sound of her given name. “Do I have a choice?”

“Excuse me? Are you Evelyn’s granddaughter?” “Yes, ma’am. What can I do for you?”

“Ida Wedington.” The woman introduced herself in the curt manner that BJ had noticed most of the islanders used with mainlanders. “I saw that Hobie Lynn brought you back home earlier this afternoon. I wanted to give you some time to get settled before I came over and introduced myself.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re Tanti’s next-door neighbor. I remember you. Nice to see you again.”

“I see Hobie Lynn brought Arturo back home. Have you had any problems so far?”

“Nope.” BJ had a feeling that if she related all the experiences she’d had on the island thus far, the old woman would run away in fright.

“I wanted to let you know that I can continue to take care of the greenhouses and the outside chores, especially since you seem to be flying on one wing.” The old woman chuckled.

BJ found the older woman’s attitude a little patronizing. The feeling that people might have been laughing at her often set BJ off. Sometimes, as in this case, she realized that she had built the feelings up in her own mind, but that didn’t stop her from doing something foolish in response.

“No need for you to put yourself out. I can handle it.”

Ida raised one eyebrow in response. “You sure about that? It’s kind of...complicated.”

BJ chuckled. “I have a college degree. I’m sure I’ll be able to manage.”

“Well,” Ida said slowly. Her expression said that she had her doubts. “Would you like me to walk you through it the first time?”

“No, thanks, though. Tanti wrote out some pretty detailed instructions.”

“Okay, but if you find it’s too much, you just give me a shout. All right?”

“Sure thing,” BJ said, wondering why the woman was making such a big deal out of watering a few plants.

“Here you go then.” Ida pulled a massive ring of keys from her canvas book bag.

“What the hell are these?” BJ accepted the hefty set of keys. “There must be fifty of them.”

“Fifty-two, to be exact. They’re marked at the top of each key. The greenhouses, shed, and all the rest are to the watering system. You sure you don’t want me to run through all of this just one time?”

“No, no, not necessary at all.” BJ felt as though she was in over her head, but being the wise woman she was, she wasn’t about to admit that fact.

“Okay.” Ida wasn’t convinced, but Evelyn had said that if Baylor wanted to handle things, Ida should let her.

BJ closed the door after thanking Ida, and once again tested the weight of the key ring in the palm of her hand. She looked down at Arturo before speaking. “Looks like we’re the keeper of the keys, pal.”Arturo wagged his tail and danced around her feet.

“Hey, it’s about dinner time,” BJ said when the grandfather clock in the living room chimed six. “Are you hungry?”

Arturo obviously knew that word. He spun around in a tight circle a few times, his feet barely touching the ground, then sped toward the kitchen.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” BJ said with an amused laugh. Owning a pet had never held any appeal for BJ, but Arturo seemed different. “I haven’t even been on this island for two days and already I’m talking to animals. Okay, she said your food was in this cabinet.”

BJ pulled out a large can, opened it up, and looked at it in confusion. “How much of this do you get?” BJ asked her canine companion. Arturo barked once and danced around a stainless steel food bowl on the kitchen floor.

“Hmm...okay, here ya go.” BJ emptied the entire can into the dog’s bowl. “Now how about me?”

BJ looked through the cabinets. She was only hungry for a snack and found an unopened box of Cheez-Its in the pantry. She loved nothing better than Cheez-Its and a nice cold beer. She was thankful that she had talked Hobie into making a brief stop at the grocer’s before coming back home earlier.

Briefly stopping at the refrigerator, BJ armed herself with an ice-cold bottle of Corona. She set her treasures on top of the coffee table and found the envelope containing her grandmother’s instructions for running the household. BJ took a long swallow from the bottle and opened the massive manual. She looked over at Arturo, who lay curled up beside her.

“Ha, we can do this, huh?” She took another drink. “Don’t tell me it’s too complicated. What do I look like—someone who flips burgers for a living?”

She started to read and became thoroughly engrossed in the many small tasks necessary to keep the greenhouses functioning. BJ stared in awe at the detailed drawings Evelyn had provided. “She must have been writing this thing for a year.”

“Oops. ‘Feed Arturo at breakfast and dinner. One-quarter of a can for each meal.’ No wonder you acted so happy, you little squirt,” BJ said to Arturo. The small dog, upon hearing the name that was quickly becoming familiar to him, stood up and shook the sleep from his body. He looked up at BJ, burped, and nestled back against the couch cushions.

BJ spent the rest of the evening reading her grandmother’s missive and talking to Juliana on the phone. She explained the whole story to her agent, who nearly laughed herself senseless.

“You know,” Juliana said, “if that doctor hadn’t called me, I’d swear you were making this whole thing up.”

“Trust me, this is no joke. I feel like I’m living in a surreal mix of Mayberry meets Twin Peaks. I promised Tanti, but I am not going to last out here, I just know it.”

“You hang in there, mate. I’m sure you’ll find a few ladies who can keep you occupied for the summer.”

“Are you kidding? Jules, you do not know what this place is like.”

“Yeah, well, that doc’s voice sounded plenty sexy. She rabbits on a bit, but she had the cutest laugh.”

“She laughed? When?” BJ arched an eyebrow at her unseen friend.

“I don’t remember what I said. She was probably affected by my wicked charisma and charm.”

“Bite me.”

Juliana laughed heartily. “Hey, do you have your laptop with you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Good. You can get some work done while you’re there.” “You expect me to be creative and write a best-seller here?

Impossible, I can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can. You just need to chill out, mate. Get that doctor to give you some Prozac if you have to, but relax, take it easy, and work on that damn manuscript.”