Dave knew he was in big trouble when he started hating the coat. It was just a piece of clothing, for crying out loud. It belonged to a woman who was a virtual stranger. So what if the coat was unflattering? So what if it was missing a button on the half belt at the small of her back? It was none of his business, right? Wrong. It was driving him nuts. Clearly it was the result of having too much free time on his hands, Dave thought. He was getting weird. He had become fixated on a neighbor who wanted nothing to do with him. He’d been lonely, and wondered if she was lonely, too. And then he started wondering what was under the all-concealing coat. A tweed suit? A silky dress? Maybe nothing at all?

Now he was finally standing next to the Mystery Woman, and his heart was pounding. Normal reaction when worrying about the safety of a neighbor, he told himself. It had nothing to with the fact that her complexion was flawless, or that she had outrageous Little Orphan Annie hair. She was smaller than he’d originally thought. About five-foot-five and delicately boned, with a pixieish face and large green eyes. She was wearing a pair of baggy gray sweats that molded to her soft curves and clung to her small waist. David concentrated on her blue-and-gray running shoes while he tried to exert some control over his testosterone level.

She took a step backward and swiped at the wispy curls that fell across her forehead. “I don’t understand it. Everything seems to be okay here.”

“I guess it didn’t make it to the cellar.”

She looked at him sideways. “What are you talking about?”

“The thing that crashed through your roof. It must have stopped on the second floor.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Something crashed through my roof? I thought it was an explosion in my cellar.”

David took her elbow and nudged her toward the stairs. “I think the only thing that exploded was your milk. It’s all over your kitchen floor.”

“Okay, wait a minute, let me get this straight. You saw something crash through my roof. As in ‘dropped from the sky’ kind of crashed through my roof?”

“I didn’t actually see it so much as hear it. There was a helicopter. I remember it making those whump, whump, whump sounds, then…” He made a whistling sound through his teeth and ended with an explosion. “Right through your roof,” he concluded.

Kate pushed him aside and took the stairs two at a time. The house was only one room wide. The front door opened to a foyer, which led to the small living room. An elaborate mahogany arch separated it from the dining room, and the kitchen, surprisingly large, was at the back of the house. There were two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor.