Shay wondered what Alice would think of Mitch if she knew how he had hijacked her granddaughter to a private beach and made love to her in the sand. The memory of her own responses brought throbbing color to Shay’s cheeks.

“What is his name, dear? What does he do?”

“His name is Mitch Prescott. He’s the man who found you for me,” Shay said, somewhat hesitantly.

Alice did not pursue the matter. “My, but you do look like your father,” she said in a faraway voice.

That evening, after work, Shay drove to the Victorian house she hoped to restore and parked at the curb. The place was derelict, and yet, in her mind’s eye, she could see so many possibilities for it. Suddenly she wanted that disreputable old white elephant with a consuming ache.

She drove home to find Alice happily cooking dinner and Mitch helping. The way the two of them were chattering, they might have known each other for ten years instead of ten minutes. It was crazy, but Shay was just a little jealous of both of them.

“Sit down, dear, sit down,” Alice ordered, gesturing toward a chair at the kitchen table. “You look all worn out.”

Over Alice’s neatly coiffed and blue-rinsed head, Mitch gave Shay an evil wink.

Shay sighed and sat down, grateful for the coffee that was immediately set before her. “You two are going to spoil me if you keep this up. What will I do without you?”

The question, so innocently presented, caused a stiff silence. Mitch gazed off through the window over the sink, but Alice recovered quickly. “I was just telling your young man that I might sell my house and move out here for good. I could get a little apartment, don’t you know.”

Shay’s eyes widened. “You would do that? You would actually move here, just to be near Hank and me?”

“You’re my family,” Alice said softly. “All I have in the world. Of course I’d move to be near you. That’s if you’d want—if I wouldn’t be in the way—”

“Never.” Shay rose from her chair and embraced this woman who had come to mean so much to her in such a short time. “You could never be in the way.”

“Our Mr. Prescott might have a thing or two to say about that,” Alice pointed out with a misty wryness as she and Shay drew apart. “He has plans for you, you know.”

Mitch was no longer looking out the window, and a grin tilted one side of his mouth and lit his eyes. His entire demeanor said that he did indeed have plans for Shay, and none of them could be mentioned in front of her grandmother.

Shay waited until Alice wasn’t looking and gave Mitch a slow, saucy wink.

Color surged up from the neck of his dark blue T-shirt and he tossed Shay a mock scowl in return. “Actually,” he said, “I think Shay needs a grandmother around to keep her in line. I’ve tried, but the job is too big for me.”