Dottie smiled as they walked into the kitchen and gestured toward a farmhouse table in a beautiful breakfast nook with three walls of windows looking out into a garden that appeared as if it was sculptured by fairies.

“Your garden is gorgeous!” Marina exclaimed. “Don’t tell me you do all this work yourself.”

Dottie nodded. “I enjoy it. It relaxes me and it’s satisfying to see the result every time I step into the kitchen.”

“Good Lord, why don’t you win the best home garden contest every year?” Marina asked. “It looks like an arboretum.”

“I don’t enter,” Dottie said as she slid a tray of tea and cookies onto the table.

“Why not?” Marina asked.

Dottie frowned. “There was a thing one year. Apparently, someone took offense to my string of wins and saw fit to spray the lawn with weed killer. It took me years to get the soil right again.”

“What the hell is wrong with people?” Halcyon asked. “It’s flowers. No one’s life has ever ended over flowers.”

“If I had a garden like this and someone sprayed it with weed killer, their life might end,” Marina said. “Do you know who did it?”

“Oh sure, but there’s knowing and there’s proving,” Dottie said.

“Let me guess,” Marina said. “Serina LeDoux.”

Dottie raised one eyebrow and Marina shook her head. Serina was Preston and Patricia’s now-deceased mother and had come in second to Dottie every year that she’d entered the competition.

“Ding-dong, the witch is dead,” Halcyon said. “You should totally enter again. That cow Patricia isn’t going to climb over your fence to spray anything, and Preston’s wife doesn’t get out of the bottle long enough to walk a straight line, much less garden.”

Dottie stared at Halcyon for several seconds, then burst out laughing. “You, my dear, are rather a breath of fresh air.”

Halcyon shrugged. “I just say what everyone else is thinking.”

“It’s an admirable trait,” Dottie said.

“I find that rather surprising coming from you,” Halcyon said.

Dottie nodded. “My mother had specific ideas about how a lady was to behave. Then with my husband being mayor, it seemed prudent to continue along the lines of my mother’s teachings. But rest assured, I’m as well versed on reality as you are.”

Dottie turned to look at Marina. “Speaking of reality, how is Avery?”

“She’s okay,” Marina said. “Went back to school this morning. I don’t see her coming back anytime soon.”

“At my age, you’re not surprised by much anymore,” Dottie said. “But the extent to which this has been taken, and without Harold lifting a finger or even opening his mouth, is beyond the pale. I hope you’re able to work this out before it causes permanent problems for Avery.”

“Me too,” Marina said.

“Holy crap!” Halcyon said. “Sorry to interrupt, but these cookies are the best thing I’ve ever put into my mouth. Will you marry me, Dottie?”

Dottie smiled and Marina could tell she was pleased by the compliment. “I think both of us have put marriage in our rearview mirror but I might be convinced to bake a batch for you from time to time.”