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your car pull up. This is Brenda Hansen, and it looks like you’ve already met her husband, Steve, and our friend Cody Goss.”
    “Nice to meet you, Brenda,” Miranda said. She was wearing a white sweater set with a pair of white linen shorts and matching sandals. “I stopped at the house, Kim, and when no one answered, I drove around and spotted you down here. I hope you don’t mind if I join in.”
    “No, of course not,” Kim told her.
    As Steve and Cody put squares of cake on wobbly paper plates, Miranda slipped off her sandals and stepped onto the blanket. She reminded Kim of a vintage Barbie doll. Tall, thin, her hair highlighted and her makeup expertly applied. So ladylike and genteel. The fragrance of expensive perfume drifted from her neck, where two gold chains hung in perfect symmetry.
    Steve and Cody joined the women, hunkering down in the grass to eat their cake. The sun hung low in the sky and cast a shimmer of bronze, orange, and red across the lake. A blue heron flapped its huge wings as it swept over the water to find a roost for the night.
    The cake was good, and Kim had never minded if the kids snacked occasionally before supper. Now, of course, she had to help Luke watch everything he put into his mouth. He would come home ravenous, as he always did after swimming. She had a large pot of pasta, alfredo sauce, and baked chicken nuggets waiting.
    “This is delicious,” Miranda told Steve and Cody. “I love chocolate cake.”
    “Me too,” Cody said. “In squares.”
    “Squares are definitely best,” she agreed. Then she glanced expectantly at her daughter-in-law. “The twins will each want a piece. Oh, Kim, I just thought of something. You did remember to put sunscreen on the children, didn’t you?”
    Kim’s stomach knotted. “Not today. It was so late when we came out.”
    “I just read an article that said ultraviolet rays can reflect off the water no matter how late in the day. Can you imagine? Thank goodness, I always kept Derek coated when we were at the pool. With children, you never can be too careful.”
    Kim glanced down at the basket she had packed. She was sure she had taken care of everything the twins could possibly need or want. But as always, Miranda Finley had found her Achilles’ heel.
    “What a sweet picture this is.” Miranda sighed. “Parents and children. A sunset and a lake. Good friends and—”
    “And chocolate cake,” Cody added. “But no more swimming. Not for me, huh, Brenda? That’s because what my daddy always said was true. Swimming is for fish. And now we all know the truth about that: I am not a fish.”

CHAPTER THREE
    H ello?” Derek said into the empty house. “Anyone there? Kim?” He’d just arrived home after working the late shift and had been surprised to spot a light in the living room. Had Kim waited up for him? Or was it his mother? The memory of coming home after a date to find Miranda waiting for him gave Derek a jolt of apprehension. Surely not. He was thirty-four and had been out of the nest for well over a decade.
    He’d steeled himself for trouble ever since moving his mother to Deepwater Cove. Not only did his family increase by one, but Miranda Finley had about as hard a head as anyone he’d ever known.
    No one answered his greeting, so he stepped into the foyer and loosened the straps on the heavy bulletproof vest he had begun wearing recently.
    To be honest, he was glad no one had waited up for him. He was hoping to have a few minutes of privacy to call one of the other officers he’d chatted with on the lake that day. Though Derek thought Jerry had a good head on his shoulders, he was afraid the guy wasn’t taking his work seriously enough.
    “Derek?” Kim’s low voice drifted from the shadows. “Hi, honey. I guess I drifted off to sleep on the couch. Welcome home.”
    The sound of her voice startled him. “What are you doing up so late, babe?” he asked as Kim approached. “I thought you’d be in bed by