Page 82 of Eclipse Bay

He sensed that she was on the verge of saying something crucial. But in the next heartbeat the intense, important thing disappeared beneath a breezy smile.

“And because my dog likes you, and I trust Winston’s judgment implicitly,” she said demurely.

So what the hell had he expected her to say? He wondered. “Sonofabitch.”

“Yes, but we do not refer to him in those terms in his presence.”

“Huh.”

“In my experience, Winston is never wrong in these matters.”

He thought about that for a while. “Winston didn’t like the ex-fiancé, I take it?”

“Winston was civil, but he never warmed up to Doug.” Hannah paused. “There was an unfortunate incident one evening toward the end of the relationship that more or less summed up his opinion.”

“What sort of incident?”

She cleared her throat. “Winston mistook Doug’s leg for a fire hydrant.”

“Winston and I are pals,” Rafe said. “I don’t think he’d make the same mistake with me.”

“He seems to like you very much.”

“Guess that’ll have to do. For now.”

She tilted her head slightly. “I guess so. For now.”

He lay there unmoving, intensely conscious of the warmth of her hip where it rested against his thigh and the elegantly sensual curve of her shoulder. He could not shake the feeling of destiny that rippled through him. It was the same sensation that had come over him the day he opened the letter from Isabel’s lawyer.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

Don’t let the feeling run away with you, he warned himself. Stay on top of it. Stay in control. Don’t think about the future. Stay with the present.

But the future was so important now.

He inhaled slowly, centering himself. “I was thinking about the subject that we were discussing before we were so delightfully interrupted.”

“I believe you were holding forth on a theory that whoever tried to murder Winston might have been attempting to express his displeasure over our relationship.”

“You don’t have to say it in that tone of voice. It’s a good theory. But I never got a chance to explain the finer points.”

“I’m listening.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that whoever tried to off Winston did so because he was pissed about the fact that you and I are sleeping together. What I was going to suggest was that he or she might be worried about something else altogether.”

“Such as?”

“Think about it,” he said patiently. “Ever since we arrived here in Eclipse Bay, there has been talk. It hasn’t all been focused on the speculation that one of us is trying to screw the other out of Dreamscape.”

She winced. “What a delicate way to put it.”

He ignored her. “There’s also been gossip about what happened eight years ago.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake. You actually think that some people still care whether or not we had sex on the beach that night?”

“No. The conversations have circled around the subject of Kaitlin Sadler’s death. You heard the Willis brothers. Others are talking, too. I overheard a couple of folks in the vegetable aisle at Fulton’s chatting about how no one was really sure what happened that night. One of them suggested that Yates might have closed the case a little too quickly, for lack of suspects.”

Hannah’s lips parted as understanding struck. “Kaitlin died a long time ago. Who would care if there was fresh talk going around about an old tragedy?”

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