He took another long sip from the bottle before he settled back comfortably. “I don’t mind.”

“Maggie!” C.J.’s voice vibrated in her ear. “Who the hell are you talking to?”

“Nobody,” she mumbled, deliberately turning her back on Cliff. “You were going to tell me how you were.”

“For the past twenty-four hours I’ve been frantic trying to get through to you. Maggie, it’s irresponsible to leave your phone off the hook when people’re trying to reach you.”

There was a bag of cookies on the counter. Maggie dug into it, then bit into one with a vengeance. “Obviously I left it off the hook so I couldn’t be reached.”

“If I hadn’t gotten you this time, I was going to send a telegram, and I’m not even sure they deliver telegrams in that place. What the hell have you been doing?”

“I’ve been working,” she said between her teeth. “I can’t work when the phone’s ringing off the wall and people are forever coming by. I moved out here to be alone. I’m still waiting for that to happen.”

“That’s a nice attitude,” he tossed back. In Los Angeles, C.J. searched through his desk drawer for a roll of antacids. “You’ve got people all over the country worried about you.”

“Damn it, people all over the country don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine!”

“You sound fine.”

With an effort, Maggie controlled her precarious temper. When she lost it with C. J., she invariably lost the bout, as well. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, C.J., but I’m tired of being criticized for doing what I want to do.”

“I’m not criticizing you,” he grumbled over the peppermint-flavored pill. “It’s just natural concern. For God’s sake, Maggie, who wouldn’t be concerned after that business in the paper?”

She tensed and, without thinking, turned back to face Cliff. He was watching her intently, the neck of the bottle held loosely in his fingers. “What business in the paper?”

“About that man’s—ah, what was left of that man being dug up on your property. Good God, Maggie, I nearly had a heart attack when I read it. Then, not being able to reach you—”

“I’m sorry.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “I’m really sorry, C.J. I didn’t think it would hit the papers, at least not out there.”

“So what I didn’t know wouldn’t hurt me?”

She smiled at the offended tone of voice. “Yes, something like that. I’d’ve called you with the details if I’d realized the news would get that far.”

“Get this far?” he retorted, unappeased. “Maggie, you know that anything with your name in it’s going to hit the press on both sides of the Atlantic.”