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and a chance to relax out at Jimmy’s.” Grace turned her falsely innocent gaze his way. “You’ve barely been home lately. And the cottage is completely separate from the house. You’ll never know she’s there.”
    Yeah, right. Like he’d be able to forget.
    Damn, his mom was good. There was no way he could say no and , for all intents and purposes, it was the best idea. He knew Merri would be more comfortable at the cottage. He knew she lived alone in Maryland and would be uncomfortable staying at his parents’ home.
    And she needed the break. He could see it in the dark smudges under her eyes and the way her clothes hung on her. She looked fragile. He’d be damned if she went back to Maryland like this.
    “Yeah, that’s fine.” Jimmy shifted his attention to Merri. “The cottage isn’t big, but it’s not rustic. I lived there myself for a few months while I renovated the house.”
    Merri looked ready to protest again, but Grace broke in with a bright “Good, that’s settled,” and a broad smile. “Now, let’s eat. Nic, what progress have you made on the Schwartzwald case?”
    Suddenly, Jimmy couldn’t wait to get home.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Merri couldn’t think of a single thing to say on the ride back to Jimmy’s.
    He’d been quiet at lunch, and afterward, he’d slipped back to the basement lab while Grace and Annie had shown her around the offices. Despite being on well-traveled Walnut Street, the building was surprisingly quiet. The first-floor rooms were bright and large and painted in soothing shades of khaki and tan with Berber carpets throughout and artwork on the walls.
    The front door opened into Annie’s domain , the reception area. Another three rooms were situated behind the reception area. Mal and Janey’s office sat directly behind, while an empty office separated Nic’s office at the rear of the building. A stairwell near the back led to Grace and Frank’s second-floor offices and Nic’s third-floor apartment while another door across from the empty room led to the basement lab.
    She was to have the empty office on the first floor. Right across from the lab door. Jimmy’s lab.
    She must have been under a spell to agree to this. Didn’t she have any backbone at all? Grace had steamrolled her, though she’d done it with velvet instead of steel.
    “You know, your face’ll stay like that if you keep frowning. What are you thinking about so hard?”
    Jimmy’s voice, amused but concerned, broke through her thoughts. She turned to see him glance at her.
    “I’m just gonna go grab my bag and you can take me to the train station. I’ll call your mom from my apartment and tell her I got called back to work. I’ll make sure she doesn’t blame you.” That made him laugh and Merri grimaced. “I realize she’s kind of…convincing, but we both know you don’t want me here and—”
    “Now wait a minute. You don’t know as much as you think you do.” He shook his head. “You need a break. You can’t look at yourself objectively. How much weight have you lost in the past year?”
    She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She’d lost some, and whenever she lost weight, her breasts shrank. Obviously he’d noticed that . Well, maybe that’s not all he’d noticed. She’d had to start using a belt to keep her pants from dropping off her hips and her arms did kind of look like sticks.
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s not like I weigh myself regularly. I don’t even have a scale.”
    “Okay, but you noticed you lost some, didn’t you?” He smiled at her then, a half grin that made her heart thump like an excited dog’s tail. “Give this a chance. I won’t be around much anyway and my mom would have my head if you ran.”
    So, she lusted after him and he put up with her because of his mother. Great.
    Shaking her head, she looked out the window and realized he’d parked in a strip mall in front of a supermarket. “What are we doing