Dear Christina,

I would like to work with you in your shop every day. Not for the entire day, just for a few hours when you are really busy. I know how messy the shelves get after a crowd of people has come through. I am a tidy person. I possess my own feather duster. I could bring that to your shop. (Not that I think your shop is dusty.)

I would be grateful to be paid five dollars a day for three hours of work. Or whatever you think is appropriate.

Your Friend,

Wink Bittlesman Lombard

Christina smiled. “Did you see this?”

She handed it to Andy, who quickly read it.

“She’s a Bittlesman, all right,” Andy said. “Nine years old and negotiating for pay.”

“What would Delia say if I agreed to this?”

Andy shook his head. “Honestly, I’m sure she’d be grateful. Okay, scratch that, my sister is rarely grateful. But she’s got to keep going into the city for this divorce mess. Our father, the old curmudgeon, hides himself away in his office all day. I’m spending as much time on the island as possible so I can be here for both of them.” He handed the letter back to Christina. “I’ve taken Wink to Great Point and I’ve played Monopoly with her, but I’m afraid I bore her.”

She tapped it against her lip, thinking. “Actually, she could be of some help. What worries me is my responsibility. I mean, what if she wanders off and doesn’t return and I don’t know where she’s gone?”

“She’s a serious little girl,” Andy said. “We could stipulate that she can’t leave the shop during her work hours.”

Christina threw back her head as she exploded with laughter. “Stipulate! To a nine-year-old girl!” Smiling, she linked her arm with Andy’s and started back to his car. “Tell her that if it’s okay with her mom, she is welcome to work with me.” She glanced up under her lashes at Andy. “Why don’t you help her draw up a contract? Stipulating hours, salary, and the number and duration of bathroom breaks.”

Andy grinned. “I think it will do her a lot of good to hang out with you.”

Christina nodded. “I concur.”

Walking back along Orange Street and down Mulberry Street to Andy’s car, they held hands. Through the leather of his gloves and the wool of her mittens, Christina felt the surge of their physical attraction. She thought he would kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her.

But he drove her home, walked her to the door, and politely refused to come in for coffee.

“I know you have to work tomorrow,” he said. “But I’d like to see you again soon.”

“I’d like that, too,” Christina said. Go in the house, her IC ordered her. Don’t stay here gazing at him like a lovesick teenager!