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eat?”
    “You don’t have to shout. I’m not hard of hearing.” Erika rolled her eyes. “Not like some people I know.”
    Down girl. Take a deep breath.
Ragni obeyed her inner prompting. “Okay, let’s get something straight here. When I touch you, that means I have something to say and you will remove an earphone to listen, all right?” Ragni spoke carefully because if she didn’t, she might say more than was necessary at this point. “Oh, and I expect an answer.”
    Did a grunt suffice as an answer?
    “Let’s start again. I have not had breakfast, and I am hungry. I’m offering you the choice of where we stop. So decide.”
    “McDonald’s.”
    “Fine.”
At least some things haven’t changed.
    “I want an espresso to go with my breakfast.”
    “Oh, really? Since when does your mother allow you to drink coffee?” Ragni glanced at her niece only to get another rolled eyes look and a shake of the head.
Okay, this time we’ll let this pass. I need the biggest size I can get with a triple shot.
    She might as well have been driving by herself. Shortly after they ate, Erika fell asleep, her head tilting to the side and gentle snorts puffing her lips. Ragni thought of reaching over and turning off the iPod that had slipped from the girl’s relaxed fingers. Surely she didn’t need that noise in her ears all the time—not if she wanted to have any hearing left by the time she reached thirty.
    As the car ate up the miles, Ragni’s mind wandered to her work.
Who messed around with the Byers ad? Has it happened before and not been caught? I thought I could trust my team with my life. What can I do to figure out who did it
—
and why?
When those thoughts hit nothing but a dead end, her mind veered off on another tangent. When she recognized Daren on the movie playing in her thoughts, she stuffed those memories in an ironclad box and buried it—again. A fire to cleanse all the hurt might have been nice.
    Then there was her weight. Even though she’d lost five pounds last week at the spa, she still had thirty to go. Just the thought of dieting made her want to dive for the snack sack. But it was too far back to reach without stopping the car, a good move on her part. She finished the last of her coffee-gone-cold.
    They say it takes twenty-one days to establish a new habit.
If only I could have stayed at the spa twenty-one days.
But then eating healthywas far easier with someone else to do the cooking, and workouts were more fun with a trainer and gardens and celebrity-style pools. Anyway, three weeks at the Golden Dreams Spa would have broken her bank account.
    “You just have to do it yourself.” She repeated the positive affirmation she had written to help her succeed. “I am slim, supple, and strong. I love to eat right and stretch my building muscles every day.”
    She was not an abject, absolute failure. The life coach had truly helped her.
But I was counting on the two weeks at the lake to help me use the things I learned. So I’ll just have to do them in North Dakota. Look on the positive side. Cleaning that house will be a form of exercise. Why, I’ll even chop wood for the fire. Nuts! I didn’t bring an ax.
    “If life hands you lemons, make lemonade” had been one of the many signs on the walls at the spa.
Great, but lemonade takes sugar, and that’s not on my diet.
    She glanced over at her passenger.
Shouldn’t it be Erika’s job to keep the driver awake? Or at least to keep the driver from thinking too much?

    After a quick stop at a drive-through, at which point Erika ordered a fair amount for not seeming to care whether she ate or not, Ragni’s thoughts took off again without her permission.
Erika and I going to the beach, the zoo, movies, the Museum of Natural History. Tiptoeing through the Egyptian exhibit, whispering as if talking aloud might wake spirits from the tombs. Eating kettle corn, slightly sweet and salty. Drawing and painting together.
They’d started with finger paints