Free Just a Wish Away by Barbara Freethy Page B

asking if there was some big, expensive piece of jewelry or something, I don't know. Jack was a wealthy man, and he had a lot of interesting pieces that he picked up on his travels. I'm itching to see what he sent me. I hope there's some rare treasure." Shadows dimmed her gaze. "I guess anything valuable is probably gone now."
    "I don't know how much the thief got," Alexa said. "A couple of the boxes were intact, so your sudden arrival obviously deterred them."
    "I guess it's good I was there then."
    "How well did you know Jack Wellbourne?" Alexa asked.
    Phoebe smiled. "Jack was very charming and had a big personality. We had dinner a few times in recent years. He was a huge flirt, trying to turn my head with flattery, but I could see right through him. I told him to stop wasting his time. Once he backed off a little, I did enjoy his company. We had some things in common. He was a widower, too. His first wife died of breast cancer. It was very sad. Jack wasn't the same after that. He started dating younger women," she said with a touch of disapproval in her voice. "That second wife of his was a real piece of work. Roberta had her eye on the prize though. She saw in Jack the opportunity to gain money and power, and she went after him. He told me later, he got involved with her, because he knew he'd never break her heart. She didn't want love. She just wanted money. I think they both cheated on each other. There were always rumors flying around about them. Then one day she was gone."
    Alexa wondered if Jack had cheated on his second wife with Shayla. But wouldn't there have been an even bigger age gap? "How old was Jack?" she asked.
    "He was sixty-four, five years older than me. That's young these days."
    "It is young. How did he die?"
    "Cancer. He got the diagnosis last year. He didn't tell me until six weeks ago." She gave a sad sigh. "That disease seems to take so many of my friends. It's terrible."
    Alexa nodded in agreement as she mentally calculated that fifteen years ago Jack would have been forty-nine years old and Shayla was twenty-five. That fit with what her aunt had just told her about Jack's predilection for younger women.
    "Jack built the house on the beach for his first wife, Laura," Phoebe continued. "It was Laura's fantasy house. She loved to paint out on the deck in the late afternoons. After she died, Jack couldn't bear to live there, so he rented it out most of the year, and he traveled. After his last divorce, he settled in there. I guess he finally decided to come home." She paused. "Why are you asking me so much about the Wellbournes, Alexa?"
    "It just seems like a coincidence that the boxes arrive and someone breaks into your shop," she replied.
    Phoebe frowned. "I didn’t think of it like that."
    "We don't know that the two events are connected," Alexa said quickly. "I don't want you to worry. I'm going to stick around and help you figure out what happened and get things put back together in the shop. Once your assistant gets back next week, we can talk about when you'll be able to reopen."
    "You can take time off work?"
    "Yes, it's no longer the busy tax season. And I'd like to help you."
    "Your mother won't like it," Phoebe said, giving her a pointed look.
    That was probably true, but Alexa didn't care. "I'm a grown woman now. I do what I want."
    "You should stay at my house."
    "I have a room at the Cheshire Inn."
    "But you're family, honey."
    "I'm fine there, really."
    "Well, if you need anything, the spare key is where it always was."
    "Okay." She paused, seeing a question in her aunt's eyes. "Is there something else?"
    "I was just wondering if your father knows I'm in the hospital."
    She'd been covering for her dad for too many years, Alexa thought, always having to explain away some bad behavior on his part. But now wasn't the time to get into the truth about her father with her aunt. "I left him a message. I'm sure he'll be in touch."
    Phoebe smiled sadly. "I'm not so sure. Rob is not the man I