Page 34 of Sheltered By Love

“How is Mrs. Davis?”

She doesn’t look at me, just fusses over the rabbit. “Bored. But well enough, all things considered.”

That makes me smirk. All things considered, is far too polite. Viola Davis has smoked like a train since before I was born.

I can’t imagine the nursing home will be as lenient as we were about her smoking inside or that poor doc Flanagan’s advice will sink in.

Felicity puts Roger back in his pen and gives him a floret of broccoli. “Did you have lunch?”

Not sure she’s addressing me or her pet, I shrug. “I had a can of beans and jerky. Roger ate the lettuce you left him.”

She starts pulling groceries out of the bag as she replies. “Well, I missed it, so I’m making an early dinner.”

I stay silent, not sure if she’s inviting me or informing me. “I can stay out of your way. I was going to set up in Mom and Da—your office,” I say.

I don’t know if I’ll ever stop thinking of it as their room. Even with her work bench, and gear in it, every time I go in there, I feel like I’m walking on holy ground.

Her lips twitch. “I was going to ask you to help. I need to put Roger outside for a while, and I was planning on cooking spaghetti,” she says.

When I don’t answer, a coy smile appears on her face. “You can boil water, can’t you?” she says.

Felicity

After putting the groceries away and taking Roger outside to watch him enjoy his freedom for a while, I glance at the back of the house and grimace.

To the casual observer, the cameras aren’t obvious, but I’ve sat on the lawn often enough to recognize the addition of some black domes on each corner of the roof.

As Roger frolics, I glance at Zane’s other house and see more cameras on his, including several pointing to the side of my house, my cheeks blaze in annoyance.

One of the cameras he installed points directly into the bathroom.

I never worried about the flimsy sheer curtain before because Mrs. Davis was my neighbor.

I’m so furious that I abandon Roger to his frolicking and leap to my feet.

I don’t bother to lower my voice as I enter the kitchen again. “Did you really need a camera aimed right into my bathroom?”

Zane looks up from where he’s adding spaghetti to a pot and throws me a frown. “I need to be able to see all angles of the house.”

How can he think I’d be okay with that? “You’ll be able to see all angles of me!” I say.

His eyebrow hitches. “I’ll only be looking if the alarm trips. The chances of that happening when you’re in there are slim to none.”

I shake my head. “That’s not good enough. I want you to put up a new curtain, first thing tomorrow.”

He works his jaw and looks like he has several things he’d like to say to me.

But he doesn’t get a chance, someone knocks at the door, making us both freeze.

Zane pulls out his phone and curses. “It’s Nicki,” he says.

I smother my own curse. Nicki doesn’t often show up unannounced but when she does it’s never good.

With Garrett speaking to her about the burglaries it’s no surprise she’s at my door.

It’s a small wonder she didn’t try to wrench more information from me when I saw her at the nursing home earlier.

“Can you get rid of her?” he says.

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