“OKAY, WHAT’S UP?” Mac asked three evenings later. They sat on his back porch in the quiet of the night.

Jill leaned against him and squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“You’re a lousy liar.”

“I know.”

He put his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Emily and her friend Ashley were in the living room watching a movie together. The evening was cool and still with a thousand stars overhead. With Jill next to him and the promise of her in his bed later that night, he could almost forget all the hell in his life.

“So tell me,” he said.

“When I came back, the only problem I had was getting a new job and taking revenge on Lyle. Now those things seem so unimportant. My aunt isn’t speaking to me, you’re facing a preliminary hearing in less than a week, my father arrives tomorrow and I don’t know how much of all of this I should tell him.”

Mac smiled. “Your father has an information network that would make the CIA weep with envy. I’m guessing he pretty much knows everything.”

“That doesn’t mean he won’t ask questions. I told him some stuff, but not all of it. You know how he is. All that gentle understanding wrapped around some serious probing. I doubt we’ll be out of the airport parking lot before I start spilling my guts to him.”

“Is that so bad?”

She lifted her head and smiled at him. “Not really. I guess I’m more upset about Bev than him.”

He’d heard about their fight. “Have you tried to make things right with her?”

“She doesn’t want to talk to me. As soon as my dad heads back to Florida, I’m going to move out. That will make things easier for everyone.”

He rubbed her back and wished he could offer to let her move in with him. Only two things stood in his way. Make that three. If he lost Emily, he wasn’t going to be fit company for anyone. If he didn’t lose Emily, he couldn’t issue the invitation. Last, but equally important, Jill wasn’t going to be around that much longer.

“Won’t you be moving to San Diego soon?”

“I thought we weren’t talking about that,” she said.

“We have to. It’s a great job. You should take it.”

“Trying to get rid of me so quickly?”

“No. Trying to say the right thing. It’s everything you want. Isn’t that what you told me?”

“I guess.”

“There’s enthusiasm,” he said teasingly.

“I’m having a hard time getting any extra energy together right now,” she admitted. “What about you? Will you be staying here if things don’t go well?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead.” Nor did he want to. Life without Em? The only thing that could make the situation worse was life without Jill.

The unexpected realization made him stiffen and swear silently. Life without Jill? They’d talked about her taking a job somewhere else, but he’d never considered the consequences. That she would leave. That she wouldn’t be next door, or his friend, or as of late, his lover.

He turned to her and cupped her face in his hands, then kissed her. She responded with an eager sweetness that made him ache.

“You’re really good at that,” she said when he pulled back.

He forced himself to smile. “So are you.”

Don’t go.

He wanted to speak the words, bargain with her, ex plain why it was important for her to stay. He wanted to talk about building a life, of families and love and for ever.

Sometime, when he hadn’t been paying attention, he’d fallen for her.

“What on earth are you thinking?” she asked. “You have the most peculiar expression on your face.”

He shook his head. What was there to say? What could he offer? Jill hated it here. She wanted the big city and corporate law. He wanted…aside from her and his daughter, he wanted to find a place to belong. He had thought that was here. With Rudy muscling in, he wasn’t so sure. The mayor had—

“I have to fight them,” he said.

“What? Who?”

“Rudy and the mayor. I’m not going to let them take over Los Lobos. Somehow I’m going to have to convince the town that they have to fight with me against Rudy and the mayor.”

“It will be an uphill battle.”

“Maybe, but after the hearing, I may have a lot of time on my hands.” Time, because Emily would be gone.

“I want to help,” she said, taking his hands in hers. “We’d make a good team.”

“You won’t be here.”

She looked at him, then dropped her chin to her chest. “Let’s not talk about that.”

They could avoid it, he thought, but that didn’t change the truth.

“NICE WHEELS,” William Strathern said as he slid into the passenger seat of the 545. “New?”

“Lyle’s,” Jill said. “I was going to keep the car, but I don’t love it and he does.”

Her father clicked his seat belt in place. “Since when do you care about what Lyle thinks? I thought he was a lying weasel rat fink dog, or some variation on that.”

“He was. Actually, he still is. But I don’t want the car, and I’ll get no satisfaction from driving it. I guess I could sell it, but that seems childish.”

“What happened to the plan for revenge?”

She shrugged. “I don’t care anymore. I have no energy where Lyle is concerned. Marrying him was a huge mistake and now I’m fixing the problem. That makes me feel good. As for Lyle, I can’t tell you how much I’m not interested in him or his life. He’s buying me out of the condo, I’m getting a cash settlement for the car and fifty percent of everything else.”

“That sounds mature.”

She pulled onto the main highway that led to Los Lobos. “It is. Which is very exciting. But the big news is that I know I’m going to be fine and I have a feeling Lyle never will be. Not because of me, but because he’s a complete idiot. Screwing around at work? What’s up with that? It’s only a matter of time until he gets caught and then what? He’s not my problem anymore and I couldn’t be happier.”

Her father patted her shoulder. “That’s my girl. So what’s new since we last spoke?”

“About four billion things.”

“That’s going to be a long list.”

She smiled. “Okay, maybe only a couple of dozen. I have that job offer from a great law firm in San Diego.”

“Sounds like exactly what you’re looking for,” he said.

“So you’d think. They’re starting to get impatient.”

“Of course they are. You’re a catch.”

The constant, unconditional support was one of the things she loved most about her father.

“I want to wait until after Mac’s hearing to make a decision. They weren’t happy, but they’ve agreed to wait.”

“When is the hearing?”

“Two days after the pier celebration. You’re just in time for all kinds of fun stuff.” She tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. “Just so you know, Bev and I aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye these days.”

“Because of Rudy.”

“Yeah. She thinks I’m wrong, I think she’s an idiot.” Jill sighed. “Okay, that’s harsh, but it sums up the situation. Plus Rudy keeps leaving messages for me and there’s no way I want to talk to him. He’s either going to try to convince me that I overreacted about him or it’s going to be something about Mac. I don’t want to hear either.”

“Speaking of Mac, has he found a lawyer yet?”

Jill glanced at him. She’d hoped they would get around to that. Her father might be into his sixties, but he was still an impressive man and he knew the law better than anyone she knew.

“Not one he’s happy with. I sort of thought you might want to take that on.”

Her father raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure he’d be interested.”

“Of course he would. I think you’d enjoy the challenge. It would be a change from dating age-inappropriate women.”

He chuckled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Of course not. That’s why your current girlfriend is only five years older than me.”

“How did you find that out?”

“I have my ways.”

“Kelly’s a lot of fun.”

“I can only imagine and no, I don’t want details.”

“Good. You don’t talk about my love life and I won’t talk about yours. Although I will say it took you long enough.”

Jill was so stunned that she nearly drove off the road. “What?”

“You and Mac. You’ve been crazy about him for ages, although I’m very grateful you kept your feelings to yourself instead of acting like a complete nutcase like your friend Gracie.”

“She was enthusiastic about loving Riley.”

“That’s one way of putting it. I was afraid I was going to have to issue a restraining order so that poor boy could finish high school in peace.”

Jill wondered what Riley would think to know that someone in town had actually thought of him as “that poor boy.” She doubted he would be amused.

Not wanting to pursue that topic, or the issue of how long she might have been interested in Mac, she re turned to the question of his legal defense.

“Are you going to take Mac on?” she asked.

Her father glanced out the side window. “I’ll have to give it some serious thought.”

THE MORNING of the pier celebration dawned bright and hot. Local motels had been booked for weeks in advance. Mac figured the beach parking lots would be full by ten. At least he had the off-site parking and bus service ready to go. Now if they could just get through the day without anything out of the ordinary happening, he would be relieved. Once this was done, he could concentrate on spending as much time with Em as possible before the preliminary hearing.

But until then, he had to deal with too many tourists, underage drinking, patrolling the beach, keeping the crowd on the pier to a manageable number so the old supports didn’t give way. There was parking enforcement, the usual fights, arguments and minor medical emergencies.

“Hell of a way to make a living,” he said as he stood, grabbed his clipboard and started to step out of his office.

D.J. stopped him with a quick, “Boss, can we talk?”

Mac winced. “This isn’t a good time to tell me that we’re underfunded and undergunned to fight terrorists,” he said with barely concealed impatience. “Let’s take it up next week.”

D.J. swallowed. “It’s not that.”

Mac was about to push past him, but there was something in the kid’s eyes. Something that made him step back into the office and jerk his head toward one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“What seems to be the problem?” he asked. D.J. hunched over, his hands twisting together. He scuffed his feet, then raised his head and announced, “I’ve met somebody.”

Mac swore silently. Just his luck. His junior deputy had knocked up some summer bimbo. Did he want Mac’s advice on getting married or keeping the kid? Mac figured he wasn’t exactly the right person to ask.

“Maybe you should talk to one of the women,” he said knowing this didn’t bode well for the day. “They’re better at this sort of thing.”

D.J. nodded but didn’t move. “The thing is we get along great. Not just, you know, in bed, but we can talk and laugh. We like the same things.” He smiled shyly. “It’s really great.”

Young love, Mac thought, feeling about ninety years old. “That’s great, D.J. I’m really happy for you. You’ll have to bring her around sometime.”