Ethan studied his sandwich. ‘‘Are we going to tell Phil about this?’’

‘‘Nope. But I can’t wait until it happens to him. What do you bet he’ll think about heading to some fancy shrink? He’ll want one with lots of initials after his name and an office on the right side of town.’’

‘‘Her name,’’ Ethan corrected and began to smile. ‘‘He’ll want a good-looking female if he’s going to lie down on a couch. It’s a pretty day,’’ he added, suddenly appreciating the warm breeze and the flash of sun.

‘‘You’ve got another ten minutes to enjoy it,’’ Cam told him. ‘‘Then your ass goes back to work.’’

‘‘Yeah. Your wife makes a damn good sandwich.’’ He angled his head. ‘‘How do you think she’d do at sanding wood?’’

Cam considered, liked the image. ‘‘Let’s go talk her into letting us find out.’’

NINE

ANNA WAS THRILLED TO have the afternoon off. She loved her job, had both affection and respect for the people she worked with. She believed absolutely in the function and the goals of social work. And she had the satisfaction of knowing she made a difference.

She helped people. The young single mother with nowhere to turn, the unwanted child, the displaced elderly person. Inside her burned a deep and bright desire to help them find their way. She knew what it was to be lost, to be desperate, and what one person who offered a hand, who refused to snatch that hand back even when it was slapped or snapped at, could change.

And because she had been determined to help Seth DeLauter, she’d found Cam. A new life, a new home. New beginnings.

Sometimes, she thought, rewards came back to you a hundredfold.

Everything she’d ever wanted—even when she hadn’t known she wanted it—was tied up in that lovely old house on the water. A white house with blue trim. Rockers on the porch, flowers in the yard. She remembered the first day she’d seen it. She’d traveled along this same road, with the radio blaring. Of course, the top had been up then, so the wind wouldn’t tug her hair free of its pins.

That had been a business call, and Anna had been determined to be all business.

The house had charmed her, the simplicity of it, the stability. Then she walked around the pretty two-story house by the water and saw an angry, uncooperative, and sexy man repairing the back porch steps.

Nothing had been quite the same for her since.

Thank God.

It was her house now, she thought with a smug grin as she drove fast along the road flanked by wide, flat fields. Her house in the country, with the garden she’d imagined. . . and the angry, uncooperative, sexy man? He was hers, too, and so much more than she’d ever imagined.