Free Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts

to know.
    "Guy's got a tapeworm." Aubrey leaped nimbly onto the dock. "He ate damn near half a loaf of French bread five minutes ago."
    "I'm a growing boy," he said with a chuckle. "I'm going to charm Anna out of something."
    "He actually thinks he's charming," Emily said with a shake of her head. "It's a mystery."
    The Chesapeake Bay retriever Ethan called Nigel landed in the water with a happy splash, then bounded up onshore to run after Deke.
    "Give me a hand with this, Em, since the jerk's off and running."
    Aubrey grabbed one end of the cooler Ethan had set on the dock. "Mom may water up," she said to Seth under her breath. "She's really anxious to see you."
    Seth stepped to the boat, held out his hand and closed it around Grace's. If Aubrey had been the first person he'd loved, Grace had been the first woman he'd both loved and trusted.
    Her arms slid around him as she stepped on the dock, and her cheek rubbed his with that same female sweetness as Emily's had. "There now," she said quietly, on a laughing sigh. "There now, that feels just exactly right. Now everything's where it belongs."
    She leaned back, smiled up at him. "Thank you for the tulips. They're beautiful. I'm sorry I wasn't home."
    "So was I. I figured I'd trade them for some of your homemade fries. You still make the best."
    "Come to dinner tomorrow. I'll fix some for you."
    "With sloppy joes?"
    She laughed again, reached back with one hand to take Ethan's. "Well, that hasn't changed, has it? With sloppy joes. Deke will be thrilled."
    "And chocolate cake?"
    "Guy expects a lot for a bunch of flowers," Ethan commented. "At least I didn't swipe them from Anna's garden, then try to blame it on innocent deer and bunny rabbits."
    Ethan winced, sent a wary look toward the house to make certain Anna wasn't within hearing distance. "Let's not bring that up again. Damn near twenty years ago, and she'd still scalp me for it."
    "I heard you got them from the very pretty florist on Market Street." Grace tucked her arm around Seth's waist as they walked toward the house. "And that you've rented the place above the shop for a studio."
    "Word travels."
    "Fast and wide," Grace agreed. "Why don't you tell me all about it?"
    "Nothing to tell, yet. But I'm working on it."
    SHE WAS running behind now, and it was her own fault. There was no reason, no sane reason she'd felt compelled to shower, to change out of her grubby gardening clothes. Certainly no reason, she thought, irritated with herself, to have spent time on her precious Sunday fussing with makeup.
    Now it was past noon.
    Didn't matter, she told herself. It was a lovely day for a drive. She'd spend two minutes on Seth Quinn and the key, then indulge herself at the nursery.
    Of course now she'd have to change back into her gardening clothes, but that was neither here nor there. She'd plant, then make fresh lemonade and sit and bask in the glow of a job well done.
    Feel the air! Brisk with spring, moist from the water. The fields on either side of the road were tilled and planted, and already running green in the rows. She could smell the sharp edge of fertilizer, the richer tones of earth that meant spring in the country.
    She made the turn, caught the glint of the sun off the mudflats before the trees took over with their deep shadows.
    The old white house was perfect for its setting. Edged by woods, with water hemming its back, and the tidy, flower-decked lawn skirting its front. She'd admired it before, the way it sat there, so cozy and comfortable with its front porch rockers and faded blue shutters.
    While she felt the whimsy and the privacy of her own home suited her perfectly, she could admire the character of the Quinn place. It gave a sense of order without regimentation. The kind of home, she reflected, where feet were allowed to prop on coffee tables.
    No one would have dreamed to rest a heel on her mother's
    Louis XIV. Not even her father.
    The number of cars in the drive made her frown. A white