"What whole story?" Sarah asked as if she were talking to a mental patient.

Rae sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Okay, we'll play your game. They told me how you've been seeing that Sharon woman. How she's got you going to California, quitting your job."

Sarah listened, then realized what was going on. Poor Rae, she thought happily and chuckled.

"What's so funny? I'm not kidding. You are not quitting your job and you are not moving to California."

"And why not?" Sarah looked into her blue eyes.

Rae blinked and ran her fingers through her hair in a helpless gesture. "Well, it isn't practical, for one. And I don't want to see you do something you'll regret. It's bad enough you got hooked up with me for a bit."

"You're the one who has a problem with that. You sent me away. No, that's not a good enough reason."

Rae swallowed with difficulty as her heart raced. "Well, Betty then. You don't want to leave her, do you?"

"I'd write. There isn't much to keep me here."

Now Rae frowned deeply. She took Sarah by the hand and led her over to the door that adjoined their rooms.

"Rae Jefferson, don't think you can play caveman with me. I..." She stopped as Rae opened the door and stepped back.

Sarah put her hands up to her face in amazement as she looked around the room. There were dozens of daffodils everywhere, crowding the room; the spring fragrance wafted over both of them.

"They didn't have ten thousand. I promised you daffodils in the spring, Sarah. Can't you think of something to make you stay?" she pleaded.

Sarah looked up at her, shocked to see the tears r.i.m.m.i.n.g her blue eyes. "I never intended to leave. You sent me away, remember?" she said in a shaky voice.

Rae put her hands on her shoulders and caressed. "A mistake I will gladly make up to you for the rest of my life," she whispered in a trembling voice.

"There is no Sharon." She smiled.

Rae was confused. Then it dawned on her-Betty. "There, um, there is no Sharon?" she asked foolishly.

"No, Rae," Sarah said affectionately. "There never was."

"Betty, Jane, and Delia. The Three Stooges, I'm gonna kill them." Rae sighed, feeling like an idiot.

"No, we're going to thank them." Sarah reached up and put her hand behind Rae's neck and pulled her down to her.

Rae sighed openly as their lips met in a heavenly kiss. She wrapped her arms around her waist and held her close. "Well, then I guess you're not leaving the university?"

"No." Sarah kissed her cheek.

Rae closed her eyes, reveling in the feel of the woman she so desperately loved. "And you're not going to California?" she asked as her voice trembled.

"Well, I told you once. I'd have to be head over heels in love to leave the Midwest."

"Yeah, this head over heels in love thing you keep talking about. Do you think you could be head over heels and stay?" Rae asked. "Because I'm tired of wandering lonely as a cloud, as you put it. I'm new at this, but I do believe I'm head over heels in love, for the first and only time in my life."

Sarah heard the pleading tone in her voice as she cupped Rae's face with both hands. She desperately tried not to cry.

"I can't leave now that I've found you," Sarah whispered against her lips, "again."

About the author.

Kate Sweeney, a 2010 Alice B. Medal winner, was the 2007 recipient of the Golden Crown Literary Society award for Debut Author for She Waits, the first in the Kate Ryan Mystery series. The series also includes A Nice Clean Murder, The Trouble with Murder, a 2008 Golden Crown Award winner for Mystery, Who'll Be Dead for Christmas? a 2009 Golden Crown Award winner for Mystery, Of Course It's Murder, What Happened in Malinmore, and A Near Myth Murder.

Other novels include Away from the Dawn, Survive the Dawn, Before the Dawn, Residual Moon, a 2008 Golden Crown Award winner for Speculative Fiction, Liar's Moon, The O'Malley Legacy, Winds of Heaven, Sea of Gra.s.s, Paradise, and Love at Last.

Born in Chicago, Kate moved to Louisiana, and this Yankee doubts she'll ever get used to saying y'all. Humor is deeply embedded in Kate's DNA. She sincerely hopes you will see this when you read her novels, short stories, and other works. Email Kate at

You may also enjoy.

Kate Sweeny romance.

Winds of Heaven.

by Kate Sweeney.

ISBN: 978-1-935216-06-3.

After the untimely death of a former lover, Casey Bennet receives a letter from Julie's lawyer, begging Casey to help Julie's partner, Liz Kennedy, and their adorable, yet precocious three-year old, Skye, who are now alone.

An avowed bachelorette, Casey has no idea what's in store when she grudgingly agrees to help Liz, who, by the way, is also pregnant and due in four months.

Casey, Liz, and little Skye find themselves in for a hilarious, tender ride that will change their lives forever.

Sea Of Gra.s.s.

by Kate Sweeney.

ISBN: 978-1-935216-15-5.

Professor Tess Rawlins spent the last twelve years teaching agriculture in California, away from Montana and her heart. When she's called back to the sprawling Double R cattle ranch and her ailing father, Tess is thrown back into the world she had nearly forgotten since the death of her brother two years earlier.

Unsettling memories boil to the surface for Tess, and her only pleasant distraction is the new cook Claire Redman and her son Jack. However, there is more facing Professor Rawlins than dealing with the memory of her brother or her attraction to Claire. Tess must figure a way to save the Rawlins's five thousand acres of rich gra.s.sland. It has thrived for five generations, when her great-grandfather started the dynasty in the 1880s; now she may lose it all to an unscrupulous land developer.

Set in the foothills of the Bitterroots, Tess and Claire find themselves in the fight of their lives-for love and the sea of gra.s.s.

Love At Last.

by Kate Sweeney.

ISBN: 978-1-935216-32-2.

At forty-nine, Alana Sanders was at the stage where life should be easier. She had put her artistic pa.s.sion on hold when she married, raised two children, and kept a happy home.

Now that the kids are grown and out of the house, it's Alana's time at last. However, she and her husband find themselves faced with a new and sad dilemma-figuring out who the stranger is who sits across the dining room table. The questions and doubt begin when Alana retraces the decisions she has made that brought her to this point.

As her life unravels around her, she meets Toni O'Hara, a Chicago fire inspector. Through her humor and compa.s.sion, Toni helps Alana come to terms with her life, her culpability in her failed marriage, and the most wonderful realization of all-love, at last.

The Kate Ryan Mystery series, by Kate Sweeney.

She Waits - Book One: - ISBN: 978-1-933113-40-5.

A Nice Clean Murder - Book Two: ISBN: 978-1-933113-78-4 The Trouble With Murder - Book Three: ISBN: 978-1-933113-85-2.

Who'll be Dead for Christmas - Book Four ISBN: 978-1-935216-00-1 Of Course It's Murder - Book Five: ISBN: 978-1-935216-11-7.

What Happened In Malinmore - Book six: ISBN: 978-1-935216-24-7 A Near Myth Murder - Book Seven: ISBN: 978-1-935216-34-6.

Also by Kate Sweeney. The Dawn/Moon Series.

Away From The Dawn ISBN: 978-1-933113-81-4 Residual Moon ISBN: 978-1-933113-94-4 Survive the Dawn ISBN: 978-1-935216-04-9.

Liar's Moon ISBN: 978-1-935216-19-3.

Before The Dawn ISBN: 978-1-935216-29-2.

end.