Taking a deep breath, she dialed Rafe on her cell phone, leaving a voice mail for him to call her back when he didn’t pick up.

She had turned to head back to her rental car and to Jocelyn’s apartment, where she was staying, when she almost collided with a woman with dark hair and big sunglasses. “Oh! Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” The woman smiled. “You’re Sara, aren’t you?”

Anyone knowing her name made her wary now, so Sara said cautiously, “Do I know you?” She didn’t recognize the woman, but the sunglasses make it harder to see her features. Sara estimated the woman was in her late twenties, and that she had money, given her sundress and expensive handbag. She had a firm, curvy figure, and her dress was flattering, her demeanor confident and sensual.

“No. I’m Rafe’s girlfriend.”

Sara took an instinctive step back and said, “What?” Since when the hell did Rafe have a girlfriend? Her mother was his girlfriend.

“I’m Marguerite.” She stuck out her hand. “Rafe’s told me a lot about you.”

He’d told her jackshit about Marguerite. Sara took her hand and shook it lightly. “Where is he, by the way?” She couldn’t force a nice-to-meet-you platitude because she really had no goddamn interest in meeting the woman who had replaced her mother in Rafe’s life.

She was angry. It had been a year already, and she understood that eventually he would move on, but it seemed too soon. She hadn’t moved on, not yet. How had he? Plus he’d been on trial for murder. When the hell had he been dating?

“He’s moved in with me. I just stopped over to pick up his mail. It’s not being forwarded correctly.”

“Oh, I see. Well.” Sara had no clue what the hell to say. “I just left him a voice mail, but tell him I said hello. I’ll only be in town for two days if he wants to give me a call.” She had wanted to see him, but now she wasn’t sure she did.

“I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you. Maybe we can go out to dinner.”

So the three of them could discuss how he’d been tried for her mother’s murder? Yeah, that sounded like good times. “Sure. Lovely.” She was such a bad liar and she wanted away from whoever the hell her name was. “Nice meeting you. I have an appointment I have to run to.”

Sara waved and started toward her car.

The woman called after her, “I’ll see you soon. And say hi to Gabriel for me.”

That brought Sara to a grinding halt. Heart pounding, she turned around, wondering if she could have possibly just heard that. The woman was already walking in the opposite direction across the parking lot, her back to Sara, too far away to question.