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easier.”
    “I can be on the road tomorrow around noon. I’ll swing by your mom’s.” He cringed at the thought. “What can I bring with me that you don’t have?”
    “I know it’s hazardous duty, but I’d love to have my paints and stuff from my mother’s house. She threw me out in June. She may have thrown out my stuff, too. I don’t know.”
    “I’ll see what I can do. And I’ll bring along the things you had at my place. Your camera’s here.”
    “I thought I’d lost it.” Haley’s voice brightened.
    “I’ll try to get there around five or six tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be starved,” he hinted.
    That made her laugh. “We’ll feed you. I love you, Rick.”
    “I’m counting on it. I love you, too, Haley. See you soon.”
    “Bye.”
    The connection went dead.
    Professor Singh stood with his hand on the doorknob.
    “So your foolproof, logical plan for life has gone phooey?”
    Gwen closed the cupboard door on the last of the breakfast dishes. There was still no sign of Haley, but Haley would talk when she was ready.
    She tossed the damp dishtowel on the back of the nearest stool, ran her fingers through her hair, pinched some color into her cheeks, and put on a saucy smile.
    When she stepped down to the garage, Peter stood beyond the outside door. A scowl marred his face and his left hand wiggled a screwdriver as he contemplated his handiwork.
    He’d shed the hoodie. Muscles filled the white T-shirt, and the cotton clung to his sweaty chest and abdomen. Worn jeans hugged his lean hips and defined the bulges at his crotch.
    Even better than the uniform .
    He teased her, when he saw the direction of her gaze. “What do you think?”
    “Uh.” Temporarily speechless, she crossed the garage and stepped out into the sunlight. Even a foot away, she sensed his heat, smelled soap and fresh sweat and wood shavings. “How’s it going?”
    He stretched to his full height. His lean hips settled forward, and his chest and arm muscles rippled. “Take a look.” His gaze shifted to the repair job, and probed a hollow above the new deadbolt with his screwdriver. “There’s more damage than I can properly fix. I wish Haley had known what she was doing when she broke in.”
    Gwen stepped closer and saw what he meant.
    He moved his screwdriver a few inches down, where splintered wood lay exposed around the main lock. “She smashed the old mechanism with a rock, and there’s damage to the wood that needs repair. I can use wood filler for now to make it secure, but you should replace the door. And I recommend a door with no window next time.”
    “I’ll call Tony later and have him put it on his list.”
    “Tony?” His shoulder stiffened and he gave her a sideways glance.
    A little jealous ? “Your partner Sam’s brother Tony does carpentry on the side. He’s a security officer at the college.”
    Judging by the tightness around his mouth, she hadn’t completely satisfied his curiosity.
    She smiled and touched his forearm. “I’ve known the Pinellis since we were kids.”
    He shifted his hips, as if his jeans had just gotten snug.
    “Tony and Sam’s sister Maria is a little younger than me, and we were cheerleaders together in high school.”
    “Cheerleaders?” A slow grin spread over Peter’s face as he perused her body.
    She skipped away, shook imaginary pompoms in the air, turned with a beaming smile, and swished her hips. “Go, Tigers, go!”
    “So Tompkins Falls teams are the Tigers? I’ll bet you were at the top of the pyramid.”
    “Nope. Center, bottom row. I’m strong, even though I’m slender.”
    “All that canoeing,” he guessed. He gestured inside the garage, up toward the rafters.
    There sat the old green canoe, straddling two rafters.
    “I didn’t realize we still had it.” Why have I never looked up there?
    Peter tossed the screwdriver onto his toolkit, came up behind her, and squeezed her shoulders with both hands. “She’s a classic. Wooden, right?”
    “Yes, I