friends might be sniggering at the pictures and talking behind her back. It’s anonymous, horribly personal, and public all at the same time.”
“We should have stayed in Boulder. I should have gotten her a psychiatrist,” Heath said. A second mortgage on the house and it would have been feasible. Cheap if it helped E.
“Maybe. Since you didn’t, you have to let her be an adult with you. She survived the Fox fiasco because she fought back. This is her fight, and you’ve confiscated the field of battle. You two have to come to terms about how you’re going to deal with this as a team.”
“So sayeth the goddess of youth,” Heath said with a wry smile.
“So sayeth the goddess,” Gwen affirmed.
The winch groaned to life and began spinning up steel cable.
“Give her back her electronics,” Gwen said. “I’m going to help John.”
TEN
Anna sat across the kitchen table from Lily, sipping extremely good coffee and watching Peter Barnes make goofy faces at Olivia.
“Nice being your boss,” he said. “We don’t have much crime here, so I may order you to babysit.” He grinned.
“Sure,” Anna said. “I met a baby once.”
“This may be Gris’s last fire. He’s been muttering about retiring for ten years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he up and does it. Your duty station here might end up being for more than three weeks. Maybe for years.”
“That’s a lot of babysitting,” Anna said somberly.
Anna had known Peter nearly twenty years, since law enforcement training at FLETC, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia. In the day, he’d been the epitome of “tall, dark, and handsome”: black hair, brown eyes, a few inches over six feet, with thick thighs and upper arms. In a test of endurance, Anna could best him. When it came to sheer physical power, she was as a spider monkey to a bull ape.
In his forties, Pete was still tall and handsome, but the dark at his temples had been painted gray—enough to suggest he was experienced, not enough to suggest he was getting old. Fatherhood was the big change. The Pete Anna knew always referred to children as ankle-biters and rug rats, harped on overpopulation, and eschewed the institution of marriage as nothing but a piece of paper.
Yet here he was, married and dangling a wee daughter on his knee, familial bliss oozing from every pore.
“They’re pretty doggone cute, aren’t they?” his wife, Lily, said with a smile and a wink at Anna. “I think Peter wanted progeny because a big man with a tiny baby is a megawatt chick magnet.”
Anna laughed because it was true. Even she, happily married to the finest man on earth, was finding Peter positively adorable.
“I told Anna she could be chief babysitter as well as chief ranger,” Peter said, never taking his eyes off baby Olivia’s face.
“I could keep her alive,” Anna said seriously. She was mildly offended when they laughed. “In Texas, I kept a younger baby alive under seriously adverse circumstances.”
“They don’t all make it,” Peter said, gooey-eyed over Olivia.
“Culling the gene pool,” Anna said.
“You don’t mean that!” Lily said in the warm tones of a good person.
Actually, Anna did mean it, but had learned not to flaunt her darker side. Much as she liked Peter, her personal jury was still out on his new wife. So far she’d seen nothing not to like about Lily. Still, it was good to wait a few years before rushing into these sorts of decisions.
“I’d best go make myself presentable,” Lily said. Having stopped to kiss first Olivia, then Peter on the head, Lily escaped upstairs.
“Sorry about the quarters. The fancy digs are getting repainted. Are you settled in on Schoodic?” Peter asked.
“I am,” Anna replied. She liked the Schoodic Peninsula. Situated across Frenchman Bay from Bar Harbor, an hour by car, less than half that by boat, it was part of the patchwork of public lands that made up Acadia. The forested peninsula
“We should have stayed in Boulder. I should have gotten her a psychiatrist,” Heath said. A second mortgage on the house and it would have been feasible. Cheap if it helped E.
“Maybe. Since you didn’t, you have to let her be an adult with you. She survived the Fox fiasco because she fought back. This is her fight, and you’ve confiscated the field of battle. You two have to come to terms about how you’re going to deal with this as a team.”
“So sayeth the goddess of youth,” Heath said with a wry smile.
“So sayeth the goddess,” Gwen affirmed.
The winch groaned to life and began spinning up steel cable.
“Give her back her electronics,” Gwen said. “I’m going to help John.”
TEN
Anna sat across the kitchen table from Lily, sipping extremely good coffee and watching Peter Barnes make goofy faces at Olivia.
“Nice being your boss,” he said. “We don’t have much crime here, so I may order you to babysit.” He grinned.
“Sure,” Anna said. “I met a baby once.”
“This may be Gris’s last fire. He’s been muttering about retiring for ten years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he up and does it. Your duty station here might end up being for more than three weeks. Maybe for years.”
“That’s a lot of babysitting,” Anna said somberly.
Anna had known Peter nearly twenty years, since law enforcement training at FLETC, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia. In the day, he’d been the epitome of “tall, dark, and handsome”: black hair, brown eyes, a few inches over six feet, with thick thighs and upper arms. In a test of endurance, Anna could best him. When it came to sheer physical power, she was as a spider monkey to a bull ape.
In his forties, Pete was still tall and handsome, but the dark at his temples had been painted gray—enough to suggest he was experienced, not enough to suggest he was getting old. Fatherhood was the big change. The Pete Anna knew always referred to children as ankle-biters and rug rats, harped on overpopulation, and eschewed the institution of marriage as nothing but a piece of paper.
Yet here he was, married and dangling a wee daughter on his knee, familial bliss oozing from every pore.
“They’re pretty doggone cute, aren’t they?” his wife, Lily, said with a smile and a wink at Anna. “I think Peter wanted progeny because a big man with a tiny baby is a megawatt chick magnet.”
Anna laughed because it was true. Even she, happily married to the finest man on earth, was finding Peter positively adorable.
“I told Anna she could be chief babysitter as well as chief ranger,” Peter said, never taking his eyes off baby Olivia’s face.
“I could keep her alive,” Anna said seriously. She was mildly offended when they laughed. “In Texas, I kept a younger baby alive under seriously adverse circumstances.”
“They don’t all make it,” Peter said, gooey-eyed over Olivia.
“Culling the gene pool,” Anna said.
“You don’t mean that!” Lily said in the warm tones of a good person.
Actually, Anna did mean it, but had learned not to flaunt her darker side. Much as she liked Peter, her personal jury was still out on his new wife. So far she’d seen nothing not to like about Lily. Still, it was good to wait a few years before rushing into these sorts of decisions.
“I’d best go make myself presentable,” Lily said. Having stopped to kiss first Olivia, then Peter on the head, Lily escaped upstairs.
“Sorry about the quarters. The fancy digs are getting repainted. Are you settled in on Schoodic?” Peter asked.
“I am,” Anna replied. She liked the Schoodic Peninsula. Situated across Frenchman Bay from Bar Harbor, an hour by car, less than half that by boat, it was part of the patchwork of public lands that made up Acadia. The forested peninsula
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