it may, I'm not going to stand here and discuss it at the cash register." With her head high, she started toward the stairs and was immediately waylaid by Gladys Macey.
"Hello, there, Mia. Don't you look pretty today?"
"Hello, Mrs. Macey." Mia angled her head to read the titles of the books Gladys had picked up. "You'll have to let me know what you think of that one." She tapped a finger against a current bestseller. "I haven't read it yet."
"I'll be sure to do that. I heard you had dinner over at the hotel." Gladys beamed into Mia's face. "Sam Logan's making some changes over there, I'm told. The food as good as ever?"
"Yes, I enjoyed it."
Then Mia looked over her shoulder at Lulu. Considering Lulu's voice and Gladys's ears, there was no doubt the opening comment had been heard and digested.
"Would you like to know if Sam and I had sex?" she asked pleasantly.
"Now, honey." Gladys gave Mia a motherly pat. "Don't get all dandered up. Besides, it's hard to look at you and not see right off you've got a nice, healthy glow about you. He's a handsome boy."
"Troublemaker," Lulu muttered under her breath, and proved that Gladys's ears were well tuned.
"Oh, now, Lu, that boy never caused any more trouble than any of the others around here, and less than some."
"The others didn't come sniffing around my girl."
"Well, they certainly did." Gladys shook her head, calling back to Lulu as if Mia was invisible - or deaf.
"There wasn't a boy on the island who didn't sniff around her. Fact is, Sam was the only one who had her sniffing back. I always thought they made a pretty couple."
"Excuse me." Mia held up a finger. "I'd like to remind both of you that the boy and the girl who did the sniffing are now full-grown adults."
"But you still make a pretty couple," Gladys insisted.
Giving up, Mia leaned over, brushed her lips over Gladys's cheek. "You have a sweet heart."
And a wagging tongue, she thought as she walked up to her office. Word would spread like a rash over the island that Sam Logan and Mia Devlin were at it again.
Since she didn't know how she felt about that, but could do nothing to circumvent it, Mia put the matter in a corner of her mind and went back to work on her proposal.
By four, ignoring the stares, she sailed across the street and into the hotel, where she dropped the envelope containing her proposal at the lobby desk, with a request that it be delivered to Mr. Logan as soon as possible. Then she sailed out again.
To make up for the time she'd lost, she closed herself in the stockroom and concentrated on business. She organized, rearranged, and put together a list of inventory that needed replenishing. The solstice always brought a flood of tourists to the island. It paid to be ready for them. Armed with the stock list, she rose. Then quickly sat again as a wave of dizziness swamped her. Foolish, she berated herself. Careless. She'd had nothing but a half a muffin all day. She got to her feet, thinking she'd pick up a bowl of soup in the cafe. And an image swam into her brain. Evan Remington stood by a barred window, smiling. And his eyes were as empty as a doll's. But he turned his head, slowly, so slowly, and those eyes began to glow red and filled with something that wasn't human.
She had to force herself not to run, to pull her calm around her like a cloak. As the image faded, she left her work behind.
"I have an errand," she told Lulu as she breezed out of the store. "I'll be back when I can."
"Going and coming," Lulu muttered.
Mia walked straight down to the station house, pausing when she had to exchange a word with an acquaintance. The streets, she noted, were already full of tourists. They strolled and shopped, cruised the island looking for the perfect picnic spot, a new vista. They would crowd into the restaurants at night or go back to their rental houses to cook up fish brought fresh from the docks. Shops were running spring-into-summer sales, and the pizza parlor was offering two free toppings with the purchase of a second large pie. She watched Pete Stubens drive past in his pickup with his beloved dog riding shotgun.
Ripley's young cousin Dennis flashed by on the opposite sidewalk, hanging ten on his skateboard. His Red