Agent Thomas pinned me with a warning glare. "I suggest you stop looking for Rourke."

"Why?" I asked.

"He's the prime suspect in an ongoing federal case."

Sean squared his shoulders. "Has there been a warrant issued?"

Baldy said, "Not yet."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"That's need-to-know information."

"We'll keep that in mind," Sean said, unlocking the car.

"Do us a favor, Ms. Valentine," Agent Thomas added. "Go back to playing with the Staties. We'll be watching to make sure you do."

They turned away, walked toward a black SUV parked two houses down.

The Staties-slang for the state police. The parting comment stung, but their dismissal hit a nerve. I didn't like being told what to do. "Charming," I said to Sean as he held open my door.

He stared after the men. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this case."

That made two of us. Instinct. Intuition. They weren't feelings I pushed away easily. It was only the look on Meaghan Archibald's face that fueled my desire to find Rourke.

Well, that and the fact that the FBI had told me to stay out of it.

As I nudged Thoreau aside to sit, my eye caught movement in the upstairs window in the house next door. A lacy white curtain swayed.

The FBI weren't the only ones who'd been watching us.

8.

The Porcupine was packed. I sidled up to the lunch counter, waited until someone left, and snagged a stool on the end. Raphael bustled back and forth, setting down orders, taking others, clearing plates.

I checked my phone for messages. I was still waiting to hear from Aiden. He was supposed to have met with the investigator on Mac's case first thing this morning, then gotten in touch with me. Curiosity was killing me. I wasn't known for my patience.

I had a voice mail-from Mum. "Oh, happy day, LucyD! My ring was right where you said it was. Thank you, thank you! Smooches!"

Smiling, I rolled my eyes and dropped my phone back into my tote.

"Good news?" Raphael asked. He gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. He motioned for another server to cover his station.

"Mum. She found her engagement ring."

His dark eyes turned serious. "So she told you."

"About her and Dad? Not so much told as I figured it out."

How long would they have waited?

"Are you staying for lunch, Uva?"

"Not today. I just need some coffee and two turkey spinach wraps to go."

"Something for the pooch?" he asked, nodding to Thoreau, who was nestled in the crook of my arm. Sean was looking for a parking spot.

I supposed Thoreau could have a little treat. "A plain turkey wrap."

"To go? You sure?" Raphael punched the order into a computer.

"Definitely. This place is a nuthouse." All the tables were full, and there was a line forming at the take-out counter.

"It's the Lone Ranger."

I whipped my head around to look out the glass storefront. "Where?"

Raphael laughed. "Not literally, Uva. He's caused the upswing in business. People are using the Porcupine as home base while they hope to get a look at him."

"More like take his money."

"More like use our restrooms."

I smiled, but my heart wasn't in it. Too much going on in my mind.

Raphael took a long look at me. "Is there something wrong?"

He had been part of my life since I was three years old. If I were being completely honest, I'd admit he'd been more a father to me over the years than my own. But being completely honest made me feel slightly traitorous.

He'd nicknamed me Uva, Spanish for "grape," when I was a tiny thing, throwing a temper tantrum of such proportions I'd turned myself as purple as a grape. Not long after, I'd begun calling him Pasa, "raisin," because one day I hoped to turn into someone as good, as nurturing, as wise, as him. Well, that and he'd looked like a raisin, his whole face squished, wrinkled, when he scolded me over the hissy fit.

It didn't surprise me he'd seen trouble in my eyes. I doubted there was anyone who knew me better, who could look straight through my many masks.

"Too many things to go into." Like Mac, like Tristan Rourke, like the FBI watching me, like wanting Sean to move in with me.

"Hmmm," Raphael murmured.

Maggie Constantine hurried over, carrying a plate of salad. She set it in front of the man next to me with a smile. "Lucy! Are you staying for lunch?" She looked around. "I can clear your favorite table."

I wasn't sure how the couple currently sitting at my favorite table would feel about that.

"I'm actually not staying," I said.

I saw how very happy Maggie and Raphael were with each other, even though on paper it wouldn't seem as though they'd make a good match. She was a Yankee fan; he was a die-hard member of Red Sox Nation. She liked classical music; it made Raphael's ears bleed. She was younger by a good decade. Yet ... they worked. Perfectly.

Something crashed in the kitchen. Maggie winced. "I should check on that." She leaned across the counter, kissed my cheek. "We'll have dinner soon, okay?"

"Okay."

Raphael watched her leave, his eyes glowing.

"When are you going to marry her?" I asked.

"There's time enough."

"Is there?" I asked.

He rubbed an imaginary spot on the countertop. "I have a feeling you're not talking about me."

A server appeared and dropped off a to-go bag. I grabbed it and hopped off the stool. "Look at that. Gotta run. Sean's probably already waiting upstairs and-"

"Uva."

"Pasa, do you think it will last?"

He immediately knew what I was talking about.

My parents.

He tipped his head back and forth as if weighing options, then narrowed his gaze on me. Softly he said, "Does it matter?"

I knew what he was saying. They were happy now. In this moment. Wasn't that what mattered most? Honesty hurt. "To me I guess it does."

"Then it's not so much about them as it is you, no?"

He was right, of course. He was always right.

"This is about Sean?" he asked.

Thoreau licked my chin. I rubbed his head, scratched under his chin. "I'm trying. Really trying to not to fear the future."

"The curse," he tapped his temple, "is here."

"How can you say that? Without the auras..."

"Uva, even with auras love isn't easy. There are still compromises, concessions. Still the need to understand, truly, the person you love. Their hopes, their fears."

"But in the end the auras don't lie. If you know for certain you're a perfect match it's easier to work through any problems. You know, without a doubt, that love will conquer all. With Sean, I don't know. I don't have that guarantee."

Raphael tapped his temple again. "You do, Lucy. You just need to choose to believe."

I closed my eyes in frustration.

"You'll see," he said.

Opening my eyes, I found him smiling. "Will I?"

Smugly he said, "Of course. When have I ever been wrong?"

I shifted Thoreau to my other arm, readjusted my tote bag, and made sure there were three sandwiches in the to-go bag. "There was that time you insisted a tomato was a vegetable."

He snapped his hand towel at me. "Get out of here, you."

As I pushed open the door, I heard his voice over the crowd: "Just believe."

If it were only that easy.

9.

Suz stood at the window, binoculars in hand. "Preston," she said by way of an explanation as I opened the door to the office.

I set Thoreau down. He ran over to Suz, sniffed her boots.

"She's recruited you as a Lone Ranger lookout?"

Suz sheepishly said, "She didn't need much arm-twisting. I have my eye on a new camera, a fancy-pants Nikon, for Teddy's birthday. I could use some extra cash."

I looked down over the snow-covered Common. "Is she down there?"

"Yep. Has been for the last hour. The Lone Ranger usually shows up around lunchtime."

"But he was just there yesterday. He won't be back for another few days."

"You don't know that."

I smiled. "Not this again."

She laughed but didn't budge from the window. "By the way, Sean and Aiden are in your office."

Aiden must have learned something juicy if he came in person. I tapped my leg for Thoreau to follow me. "Is Dad in?" I asked Suz. I wanted his take on the Meaghan situation.

"Nope. Took the afternoon off. I think he had plans with Judie." She made smoochy noises and winked at me.