With a toasted bagel and her third cup of coffee, she settled down with her current breakfast book.

She’d turned only the second page when the knock on her door interrupted her most sacred of rituals.

“Damn it.”

She marked her place. Her annoyance faded, a little, when she opened the door to Malory.

“Aren’t you the bright-and-early girl?”

“Sorry. You said you were working this morning, so I thought you’d be up and around by now.”

“Up, anyway.” She leaned on the jamb a moment and studied the minute green checks of the soft cotton shirt that precisely matched the color of Malory’s pleated trousers. Just as the dove-gray slides she wore exactly matched the tone and texture of her shoulder bag.

“Do you always dress like that?” Dana wondered.

“Like what?”

“Perfect.”

With a little laugh, Malory looked down at herself. “I’m afraid so. It’s a compulsion.”

“Looks good on you, too. I’ll probably end up hating you for it. Come on in anyway.”

The room was a compact, informal library. Books stood or were stacked on the shelves that ran along two walls from floor to ceiling, sat on the tables like knickknacks, trooped around the room like soldiers. They struck Malory as more than knowledge or entertainment, even more than stories and information. They were color and texture, in a haphazard yet somehow intricate decorating scheme.

The short leg of the L-shaped room boasted still more books, as well as a small table that held the remains of Dana’s breakfast.

With her hands on her hips, Dana watched Malory’s perusal of her space. She’d seen the reaction before. “No, I haven’t read them all, but I will. And no, I don’t know how many I have. Want coffee?”

“Let me just ask this. Do you ever actually use the services of the library?”

“Sure, but I need to own them. If I don’t have twenty or thirty books right here, waiting to be read, I start jonesing. That’s my compulsion.”

“Okay. I’ll pass on the coffee, thanks. I already had a cup. Two, and I’m wired.”

“Two, and I can just manage to form complete sentences. Bagel?”

“No, but go ahead. I wanted to catch you before you left for work. Fill you in.”

“Fill away.” Dana gestured to the second chair at the table, then sat to finish her breakfast.

“I’m going back up to Warrior’s Peak this morning. With Flynn.”

Dana’s lip curled. “I figured he’d horn in. And hit on you.”

“Are either of those things a problem for you?”

“No. He’s smarter than he comes across. That’s one of the ways he gets people to spill their guts to him. If he hadn’t horned in, I’d have baited him until he helped out. As for hitting on you, I had to figure he’d go for either you or Zoe. Flynn really likes women, and they really like him.”

Malory thought of the way he’d moved in on her in her kitchen, the way she’d gone pliant as putty when he had. “There’s a definite chemical reaction there, but I haven’t decided if I like him or not.”