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looked at it, then at him, before dropping the jar in his basket. “I need to get back to work.”
    The pale face and drawn cheeks . . . not the reaction he expected. “Leah?”
    “Enjoy the ketchup.”
    She took off and ducked out of sight before he could stop her. He wasn’t sure what just happened, but he knew they weren’t done. Not even close.
    Declan felt a presence looming over his shoulder a second later. He turned to see Art standing there and the sense of winning the argument vanished. A defensive wall rose in its place. “Change your mind about me already?”
    Art shook his head. “There will be those in town who give you a hard time. Who remember what happened.”
    “I know.” Boy, did Declan know that.
    “There’s already been some talk.”
    “About me?”
    “People don’t know you. That’s my point. Charlie caused a lot of trouble.”
    “It was his specialty.”
    Art leaned in and his voice dipped to a whisper. “All I’m saying is be careful who you trust and where you go.”
    Good advice. Declan intended to follow it.

Chapter Four
    Leah dropped the last box in the middle of the family room of her small house. A muscle at the small of her back pinged as she stood up and stretched. She bit back a groan because she had to be too young to groan. Too young for body aches and pains, in general.
    She yanked her falling sweatpants back to her waist and cursed the stupid string for slipping out of the hole during the last wash. But her bigger concern was the location of her glass of wine. She’d lost it twice in the last half hour.
    That was the one good part of the evening—wine. Of all the things she could be doing, this chore had not been in her plans. Not exactly the best way to spend a Friday night, or any night. But it had to be done.
    After seeing Declan at the diner and grocery store yesterday she couldn’t just
plan
to handle the Hanover issue. She actually had to do it. Then there was the run-in with Declan at the post office this afternoon. An actual physical crash right into his chest. She’d turned the corner to head back to the boxes and clipped him coming out of the space. Smacked into him with a thud.
    No wonder he accused her of following him. She did seem to end up wherever he happened to be. And she would have fought back, launched into another argument to get him to leave town, if her hands hadn’t landed on that chest . . . if he hadn’t smelled so good.
    Damn him.
    Seeing Declan touched off a spinning inside her she couldn’t slow down. So, he was nice to old ladies. She snorted. Actually stood there and snorted. But, whatever. Big deal. Charlie charmed more than one woman Charlotte’s age out of her heirloom jewelry. Declan learned those skills from the best.
    Leah kept telling herself all of that, but her arguments unraveled as soon as she thought them through. She’d read about him in her files and seen him hanging around town, heard what he said and how reasonable it all sounded. None of it fit together with how she thought he would be. She’d expected him to be smarmy and obvious, but he came off so normal. She hated that. Normal was hard to hate.
    Fingernails clicked against glass. “How long are you going to stand there making noises and generally freaking me out?”
    At Mallory’s voice, Leah broke out of her mental wanderings. She glanced at her friend sitting on the couch and sipping on her red wine. She slouched back into the cushions and had her feet up on the coffee table.
    Must be nice to be normal. Leah envied Mallory, and now Declan, that gift.
    Leah tapped the top box of her towering pile. “Since I’m doing all the work myself, it could be a while.”
    “I am not getting involved in your delusion.” Mallory waved her hand as she sat up and reached for the bag of pretzels she’d dragged out of the kitchen while Leah carried boxes out of her car. “No. Thank. You.”
    That was not the first reference to her impending boarding of the