Lee poked a finger at him. “What’re you going to do about it?”

“Wait until she’s ready. And give her a few nudges along the way. She’ll stay with me until she gets her house secure. She can handle herself, knows it, but she’s not stupid. And she’ll want her place secure when she moves in with me anyway. She’ll want to keep the house, the land.”

“For another kind of security?” Emily asked.

“Maybe for a while, but primarily because it’s hers, and it’s where she can keep her equipment, maybe hold meetings, experiment with plants.”

Reaching over, Emily gave his hand a squeeze. “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“I’ve given her a lot of thought. She’s who and what I want in my life. I can wait a little while for her to be sure I’m who and what she wants in hers.”

Zane gave a quick shrug, a quicker grin. “Because I am.”

* * *

Once Darby had her crew set for the morning, she headed to her place to meet the locksmith and consult with Micah.

Rochelle, the locksmith, turned out to be Ralph’s second cousin on her mother’s side. She wore a thick braid the same color as her steel-rimmed glasses and lipstick as red as a fireplug.

“My mama says Ralph sure likes working for you. Retirement didn’t suit him a whit.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m lucky to have him.”

“He’s a quiet sort, our Ralph, so when he says you’ve got a head on your shoulders and aren’t afraid of hard work, you take that as gospel. Cousin Lydia—that would be Ralph’s mama—she wasn’t certain how Ralph would do working for somebody so young, and female to boot. But he’s pleased as Sunday punch.”

“It’s a good thing. I’m hoping to get older, but I’m most likely to stay female.”

Rochelle let out a guffaw, gave Darby a hefty slap on the back.

“We got that in common. So, you had some trouble here, I reckon.”

“Somebody got in. Didn’t take much or do any damage, but I need better locks.”

“You’re not wrong about that, Ms. McCray.”

“Darby.”

“Still not wrong. I can take care of that for you, and will, but I’m gonna have to tell you—you being young, female, and a good boss to Cousin Ralph, I could bust this door in here with one half-assed kick.”

“Yeah, I thought of that.” Darby puffed out her cheeks. “I might replace the doors, front and back, over the winter, but for now good, solid locks. And I’ve got Micah Carter on his way out to see about an alarm system.”

“There’s that head on your shoulders. That boy knows what he’s doing, even if I can’t understand what the hell he’s talking about half the time. You’re pretty isolated up here,” she added as she looked around. “Though I heard you can handle yourself just fine. Heard you’re going to be doing a self-defense course at the community center.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t—”

“I’d sign up for that. I’m not what anybody’d call a delicate-type flower, but I’d like to learn some real self-defense. No telling where my work takes me. And my daughter, Reanne? She’s got her real estate license now, just started working with Charmaine. You know Charmaine.”

“Yes, I do. She helped me get this place.”

“Well, my Reanne’s hardly as big as a minute and as pretty as strawberry shortcake. I wouldn’t worry so much if she knew how to defend herself.”

When Darby finally steered Rochelle toward locks, they agreed on dead bolts, front and back. Then Micah arrived and set off another spate of conversation.

Thinking of the work still on her plate, she managed to nudge him inside when Rochelle started drilling.

“Okay, well, what I figure is I just need a basic alarm deal. Something to scare off anybody who tries to get in.”

“I could do that.” Micah scratched at his goatee. “And Zane would have my ass. He’s pretty freaked, Darby, so you gotta cut him a break.” He held up both hands before she could object. “First that asshole Bigelow goes after you, and now some other asshole breaks into your house. The guy’s entitled to a break, right?”

“Maybe.”

“What I’m going for here is a nice compromise.” He added a winning smile. “That’s what life’s about, am I right? My man Zane, he’d like to see you with the works, like video surveillance, a motion detector—”

“Oh, come on.”

“I get it, I get it. You just want noise to scare off the assholes. So I’m saying, let’s meet in the middle. I can give you the noise—somebody tries to compromise the locks or breaks a window, tries to bust in the door, alarm starts screaming. Zane says, if you were sleeping, that might not wake you up.”

“I don’t sleep that solid! I … crap. Maybe, maybe not.”

“So I add a couple bells and whistles. I can fix it up so the alarm triggers the lights. House lights up. And the alarm signals Lee’s phone.”

“I don’t want to bother Lee with—”

“Compromise. Odds are word’s going to get around you’ve got a system—in fact it’s gonna get around ’cause I’m going to mouth off about it. I can’t see anybody trying to get in again. So it’s compromise time. Otherwise, Zane’s going to badger you until you cave to shut him up. Lawyer, right, they’ll argue you brainless.”

She rolled her eyes. “I want a Coke. Let’s get a Coke.”

She walked back to the kitchen, opened the fridge.

“Hey, it looks good in here. Man, if these colors don’t wake you up in the morning, nothing will. I like it.”

“Me, too.” She handed him a Coke. She’d calculated a ballpark for the basic she’d aimed for. Now she studied Micah as she chugged Coke. “What’s the estimate for the compromise?”

When he named a price, she sighed. “Micah, that’s under what I figured for the basic deal. Come on.”

“You get the friends and family discount. It’s how I roll. Plus, I need one of those trees like you got Zane for his office. It’s cool. Cassie’s gonna make us a nice big pot for it.”

She let out another breath. “Looks like we’ve got a deal.”

“Solid.” He gave her a fist bump. “You know what else I’d do, living back up here?”

“What?”

“You ever thought about getting a dog?”

She poked a finger in his chest. “Yes! But then getting the business going, and I spend a lot of time at Zane’s.”

“We had a dog when I was a kid. I think Zane loved that dog more than I did, and we were all crazy for Betsy. He wanted a dog, but that was a big no in his house, so he’d come over to hang with Betsy as much as hang with me.”

“Really?”

“He made some noises after he came back about getting himself a dog, but said since he was gone all day, it didn’t seem fair. You getting one? That sounds like another compromise. So happens I got a friend who fosters dogs and cats.”

With another winning smile, Micah drained his Coke.

PART FOUR

HEALING TRUTHS

Healing is a matter of time,

but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

—HIPPOCRATES

This above all:

to thine own self be true.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Zane drove up the long, winding road toward home figuring he deserved a very large drink, considering not only the day he’d put in but the evening he’d have to spend on insane party preparations.

Even as he made the last turn, the wild, deep-throated barking tore through the quiet. Something bounded around from the back of the house, a blur of black-and-white speed.

And teeth, Zane noted as it bared them when he parked.

He took a good long look from the pathetic safety of a convertible with the top down as Darby came on the run.

“Zod! Stop.” And clapped her hands twice.

The thing that might be a dog stopped barking, looked back at Darby with a face that appeared to have been smooshed together by a strong, jagged vice.

“Sit!” she ordered, and it did, sort of wagging a stub of a tail. When she leaned down to give it a pet, it stared up at her with huge, protruding eyes full of adoration.

“Is that a dog?” Zane asked as he—slowly, carefully—got out of the car.

“Yes. He doesn’t bite. He was just letting me know someone was coming. I didn’t mean to do it,” she continued in a rush. “I swear on all that’s holy I only meant to take a look, then depending, maybe we’d have a conversation. Then he … hell.”

“You’re sure it’s a dog?”

“Of course it’s a dog. He’s General Zod.”

“From the Phantom Zone by way of Krypton?”

“Vicky’s kids named him.”

“Vicky.”

“You went to school with her. Micah—it’s really his fault.”

“Okay.” Crouching, Zane took a longer look. The smooshed face was mostly white, like the stubby tail. The rest of him, about twenty-five pounds of compact muscle on legs slightly less stubby than the tail, was a streaky mix of black and white. The bulbous eyes gleamed like saucers full of oil.

“This is one homely dog.”