Safe In His Arms. Anna Stewart J.

“She thinks she’s putting one over on you.”

      “Probably.” Hunter dusted off his hands and stood. “The last thing I’m ever going to be upset about is her reading.” Even if it was the same book, day after day, night after night. “Do you walk out here every night?”

      Hands shoved deep into her pockets, Kendall rocked back on her heels. How was she not shivering to death? he wondered.

      “Most nights. I’m not the best sleeper.” She winced as if the conversation took effort. Still, she didn’t seem in too much of a rush to head inside and he took that as progress. “There’s an outlook about a mile and half that way.” She jerked her chin in the direction she’d come from. “I found it a few days after I got here. There isn’t a path or anything to it, it’s just one of those places that helps shake loose the day.”

      “Sounds like you had the kind of day I did. My mind won’t turn off.” He didn’t approach her, didn’t make any move other than pushing his hands into his own pockets to stop them from stiffening up. “I met with Gil today. To talk about the book.”

      She nodded, looking past him to the ocean beyond.

      “We talked about you a bit,” he added.

      Now that caught her attention. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he saw the flash of irritation in her eyes, saw her spine stiffen, only to soften moments later. “What about me?”

      “Only that our arrival caught you by surprise and that I thought he should have given you some warning. He agreed.”

      “Did he?” Kendall’s eyebrows lifted.

      “He’ll be by to apologize. He should, anyway. I would if it were me.”

      “You’re not Gil Hamilton,” Kendall said with a quick smile. “You were right the other night. I’ve been rude to both you and Phoebe, so it’s me who owes the apology.”

      “Accepted.” The unspoken truce between them felt like the biggest hurdle he’d jumped yet. “We don’t want to get in your way, Kendall. I’m just here to do a job and hopefully show Phoebe there’s more to life than grief.”

      “I know. It’s just...” She hesitated. “Children make me uneasy. I—”

      “You don’t owe me an explanation, Kendall.” Although he was curious. Uneasy seemed an odd term to use. She hadn’t said she didn’t like children, or that she didn’t want to be around them. “On the bright side, you don’t have to worry about Phoebe talking your ear off.” His heart twisted. What he wouldn’t give to hear Phoebe’s nonstop chattering once more.

      “Maybe it’s that she just waits until she has something important to say.”

      “Maybe,” he agreed. “Would you like to continue this conversation inside?” He pointed to the carriage house. “I don’t know about you, but I’m half frozen.”

      “No, thank you.” Kendall took a step around him and shook her head. “Maybe another time. I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow and I need to try to get some sleep.”

      “Fair enough.” Disappointment he didn’t expect slid through him. He couldn’t explain it, but he liked being around her, liked talking with her. “Maybe next time then. Good night, Kendall.”

      “Good night, Hunter.”

      “YOU JUST COULDN’T wait for me, could you?”

      Kendall looked down from the second story of the scaffold she was building and found Frankie Bettencourt looking up at her, shielding her eyes against the morning sun. A sun that turned Frankie’s tied-down, fire-red hair to a color resembling molten lava. “Sorry. Got an earlier than expected start. Come on up.”

      “Surprise, surprise.” Frankie set her coffee cup down, unzipped her sweatshirt and shrugged free, tossing it onto the workbench before she scrambled up the side rungs to join Kendall. “Nice job so far. Feels sturdy.”

      They could have been twins, Kendall thought with something akin to humor shifting through her. Jeans, sneakers and tank tops were both their preferred attire. But while Kendall gravitated toward the grays and blacks of the spectrum, Frankie was a rainbow of contradictions. Even the bra strap that peeked out from under her sunshine-yellow tank was fluorescent pink. By comparison, however, Kendall looked as if she needed half a year’s worth of good meals and twice that much sleep. That said, Frankie was toned, muscular and more fit than most athletes. She had to be, given her job as a captain in the Butterfly Harbor Fire Department. She was also a good three inches taller than Kendall. So...maybe the twins idea didn’t fit, after all.