“I can’t.”

“What?” He couldn’t bring her around? Because why? Mac got a bad feeling as he considered the possibility that D.J. was trying to carry on a relationship with a ghost, an extraterrestrial or God knows what.

“I can’t…” D.J. cleared his throat, glanced at the floor and then at Mac. “He’s not a she. I mean…I’m gay.”

Mac knew his first thought should be one of compassion or some such shit but all he could think was why the hell was this happening today?

“I know you’re disgusted,” D.J. said in a small voice. He wasn’t looking at Mac now. “I am. If my dad knew, he’d kill me. I mean, I played football. I’m a jock. I’m in law enforcement.”

Mac carefully put down his clipboard and settled on the corner of his desk. Whatever crisis was happening with the pier celebration was going to have to wait.

“I’m not disgusted,” Mac said. “I’m the last person to make judgments on anyone’s choices. If this makes you happy, then I’m okay with it.”

Jeez, was he really saying this touchy-feely stuff? Not that he cared about who or what D.J. did in bed, but it was like channeling Oprah.

The kid looked at him. Hope glimmered in his eyes. “Yeah?”

“Sure.”

“Do I have to quit?”

“What?”

“You know. The department. I didn’t know, because there’s a don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy in the military and I told and…”

Mac put his hand on D.J.’s shoulder. “You’re not in the Marines, kid. As long as your significant other is over eighteen and not wanted for a felony, have at it. But not today. Today I need you out on the beaches.”

“Okay.” D.J. stood and grinned. He looked as happy as a puppy with a new chew toy. “I’m glad I told you. I wanted to before, but I wasn’t sure and I’ve really felt guilty and bad. But this is great.”

D.J. stepped forward as if he was going to hug Mac. Mac quickly held out his hand to shake.

“All right, Deputy. Stay safe.”

Mac winced when D.J. actually saluted before heading out of his office.

Mac waited until the kid was gone, then he raised his eyes heavenward. “Could this be as bad as it gets? I’d be really grateful if you’d take care of things.” Then he grabbed his clipboard and his car keys and followed D.J. out of the building.

JILL SWUNG BY her office on her way to the pier celebration. She’d promised Tina to help carry out the last of the fish.

Now that the little critters were down and the paneling stood there in all its old, stained glory, she couldn’t help thinking how great the office would look with a nice coat of paint and maybe some wainscoting. New furniture, some varnish on the floor and…

“Stop right there,” she told herself as she walked to ward the front door. “This is not your rock to carry and not your office to redecorate.”

“Morning,” she said to Tina as she walked into the reception area. “How are you?”

“Good.” Tina pointed at the boxes lined up against the far wall. “Mrs. Dixon wants to know if we would mind donating the rest of these to charity.”

“What? She doesn’t want them as a testament to the memory of her loving husband?”

“Apparently not.”

Jill laughed. “Why am I even surprised? Okay, we’re not going to take them anywhere today. We’ll just leave them and drag them to a charity place in the morning. Or maybe we should leave them tonight.”

Tina grinned. “Right. Under the cover of darkness so they can’t refuse them.”

“Exactly.”

The two women looked at each other. Jill felt an odd sense of having missed something with Tina. If they’d gotten off to a better start or come to an understanding sooner, maybe they could have been friends.

“You’ve been a real help this summer,” Jill said.

Tina shook her head. “Not even for a second. I’m sorry I was so difficult about coming in and stuff. I had a chip on my shoulder about a lot of things. You’re just so perfect and smart and everything. I was determined to hate you.”

Jill couldn’t believe it. “I’m many things, but perfect isn’t one of them.”

“Yeah, right. That’s why you always look like a model and I’m the example of the cautionary tale.”

“You have a family and a life. All I have is my career.”

Tina shrugged. “You could have more if you wanted.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Isn’t it?”

Jill started to tell her that it wasn’t. Life was far more complicated than that. But was it really? Or had she been making it complicated all on her own?

The phone rang before she could decide. Tina frowned. “Everyone knows it’s the pier centennial. Why would someone be calling?”

Jill grinned. “Because it’s not yet a national holiday. There is life outside of Los Lobos.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” Tina reached for the phone.

Jill ducked into her office, where she glanced around at the fish-free decor. A lot had changed in a short period of time. If someone had told her when she’d first arrived that she would feel kind of bad to be leaving Los Lobos, she probably would have driven Lyle’s car over them.

Tina walked into her office. “It’s for you. A Roger Manson.”

Jill put down her briefcase. “That’s not possible. Did you say Roger Manson?”

“Uh-huh. He said you’d know who he was.”

Of course she did. He was the senior partner at her previous law firm. He was the man who had refused to take her calls after she’d been fired and had given Lyle her office with a window. So he finally wanted to get in touch with her. Well, good. She could give him a piece of her mind.

She marched to the desk and grabbed the phone. “This is Jill Strathern,” she said crisply.

“Ah, Jill, I’m glad to have found you. Roger Man son here. How are you?”

She picked up the FedEx envelope holding her offer from the San Diego firm. “Never better, Rog, and your self?”

“I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty foolish right now.”

She’d expected a lot of things, but not that. Did senior partners ever admit to feeling foolish?

“I’m calling to let you know that Lyle has been let go.”

That perked her right up. She might be over her revenge thing, but that didn’t mean she wished Lyle well. “Really? Why?”

“It’s a long list and I can’t discuss all of it, but what I can tell you is that he put false reports in your permanent file and falsified client billings.”

Jill sank into her chair. “He lied about me?” she said.

“Yes. He’s the reason you were fired, Jill, and I want you to know we feel awful about it. When you were let go, several of us couldn’t understand what had happened. You’d done excellent work and the clients all adored you. In fact they miss you terribly. So we started an internal investigation.”

He kept talking about what all had happened, but she wasn’t listening. Not really. Instead she felt a bubble of happiness float its way up through her body until she thought she might levitate to the ceiling.

It hadn’t been her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Vindication felt damn good.

“We want you back,” Roger said.

That brought her down to earth with a thud.

“What?”

“We want you back,” he repeated, “and we want to show you how sorry we are with a very impressive raise. Of course you’ll be promoted and given a nice office. Bigger than Lyle had. Please, Jill, won’t you consider coming back?”

She fingered the FedEx envelope. “I’m actually speaking with some other firms.”

“I was afraid of that. Is there anything I can say or do to convince you that you belong here?”

“Let me get back to you on that,” she said.

Later, when she’d hung up, she walked to the window and stared out at the side street. Lyle was a washed-up has-been. If he’d screwed with client billing, then he was at risk of being disbarred. Funny how without her doing anything at all, he’d gotten what he deserved. So much for him buying her out of the condo. She had a feeling they would be putting the place on the market.

Now what, she wondered. Which offer did she accept? And why did the thought of leaving Los Lobos suddenly make her sad?

JILL DROVE BACK to Bev’s house to pick up her aunt and Emily.

“You’re late,” Emily said as she danced around the living room. “Your dad already left and he said we should hurry. There aren’t going to be any good places left.”

“I’ll hurry,” Jill promised as she raced upstairs to get changed. “Besides, I’m on the committee,” she yelled from her room. “We get special parking.”

It would almost make those hours spent stuffing goodie bags worthwhile.

She tugged off her clothes and pulled on a bathing suit. After fastening her hair back in a ponytail, she slathered sunscreen all over, then slipped a loose sundress over her head and grabbed her already-packed beach bag.

As she darted out of her room, she nearly ran into Bev, who had paused at the top of the stairs. They looked at each other.

Jill didn’t know what to say to make things right between them. She knew that her aunt cared about Rudy. Jill didn’t mind that so much as Bev’s refusal to see the truth about the way he made his living. Jill’s argument that Bev should understand what she was getting into had fallen on deaf ears.

“Ready?” Bev asked.

Jill nodded. “Are we ever going to be friends again?” she asked softly.

Bev’s mouth tightened. “We’re friends. I’m not angry.”

“You’re acting like you’re angry.”

“No. I thought you’d be happy for me.”

“I am. It’s just…”

“Will you guys hurry?” Emily yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

Bev smiled. “We’re being paged.”

Jill didn’t want to let the conversation drop, but with Emily staring up from the bottom of the stairs and the lack of privacy once they arrived at the pier celebration, she didn’t see a choice.

“We’re coming,” she told Emily as she started down the stairs.

VIP parking turned out to be a very good thing, Jill realized as she locked the 545 and looked around at the mass of people heading toward the beach by the pier. She thought Los Lobos had pulled in a crowd for the Fourth of July, but that was nothing when compared with this. Lines stretched ten deep at the various concession stands. Dozens of body surfers vied for the perfect ride onto the beach.

“Over there,” Emily said, pointing. “See. There’s Ashley’s mom.”

Tina had offered to save them a spot, which made Jill grateful that she and her soon-to-be-former assistant were friends.

Jill raised the cooler as a toddler raced by, his mother in hot pursuit. Music poured from dozens of boom boxes. Shrieks and laughter and loud greetings added to the cacophony. The sand was warm, the sky blue and the smell of barbecue mingled with the scent of salt and suntan lotion.

“This is great,” Jill said as they approached the spot Tina had marked out with towels.

“I didn’t think there would be this many people,” Tina said. “I need to make another trip back to the car, but I wanted to wait until you got here. I practically had to fight off people wanting to move in on our territory. I heard someone say that the pier is already filling up, that they’ll start limiting how many people can be on it at one time.” Tina smiled at Emily. “Ashley is off with her dad. She should be back any second.”