Free Angels Fall by Nora Roberts Page A

with a fire simmering. And the air was redolent with the perfumes of fresh bread and cinnamon.
    "Well?"Joanie set the bowl she held on a counter. "Are you just going to stand there gawking, or are you going to get an apron and get to work?"
    "I want to genuflect first."
    Joanie's pretty mouth twitched. She obviously gave up, and she grinned. "Kicks ass. doesn't it?"
    "It's fabulous. My heart sings. I figured we'd be…" She broke off. cleared her throat.
    "Baking in some broken-down oven and working at a spit length of counter?" Joanie snorted, walked over to a stainless steel cotfeemaker. "This is where I live, and where I live I like some comfort, and a little style."
    "I'll say. Will you be my mommy?"
    Joanie snorted again. "And I like my privacy. I'm the last place on this side of town. There's a good quarter mile between here and the Mardson place. Rick and Debbie, their kids. You see their youngest girl out with her dog by the lake every chance she gets."
    "Yes." Reece thought of the little girl, throwing the ball in the water for the dog to fetch. "I've seen her a few times."
    "Nice kids. Other side of them—with space between—is Dick's place. The one I let you practice on when you first came in. Old coot," she said with some affection. "Likes to pretend he's a mountain man, when what he is, is gay as the daisies in May. In case you haven't noticed.
    "I guess I did."
    "Then just beyond that is the cabin Boyd's using. Couple others planted here and there, but most of them're rentals. So it's a nice quiet spot."
    "It's a beautiful spot. I ran into a moose. I mean, I saw one. We didn't make actual contact."
    "Get so they'll come up and all but knock on my door. I don't mind them, or any of the other wildlife conies around. Except when they start in on my flowers."
    Studying Reece, Joanie picked up a dishcloth, wiped her hands. "I'm going to have coffee and a smoke. Water's on simmer there in the kettle. Go ahead, make yourself some tea. We're going to be working for the next three hours or so, and once we get down to it, I don't like idle conversation. We're going to get that out of the way first."
    "Sure."
    Joanie took out a cigarette, lit it. Leaning back against the counter, she blew out a stream. "You're wondering what I'm doing, living in a place like this."
    "It's beautiful."
    "Had it nearlv twenty years now. Over those two decades, I've added on, fiddled and fooled when I had a mind to." She paused to sip her cot-fee, crossed ankles covered in gray, woolly socks. "It's about what I had in mind now."
    Reece took the kettle off the burner. "Your mind has really good taste."
    "And you're wondering, since it does and I do, why my place isn't spiffier. I'll tell you," she said before Reece could comment. "People come into Angel Food because they want to be comfortable. They want good food, and they want it fast and at a good value. I had that in mind when I opened it, almost twenty years ago."
    "You do a good business."
    "Bet your skinny ass, I do. I came here because I wanted my own, and i wanted to give my boy a good, solid life. Made a mistake once upon a time and married a man who wasn't good for anything at all except looking handsome. While he was damn good at that, he sure wasn't good for me or my boy."
    Cautious now, Reece picked up the tea she'd made. "You've done well without him."
    "It I d stayed with him, one of us would be dead." Joanic shrugged, took another drag. "Better all around that I kicked his ass out, pulled up stakes. Had some money, a nice nest egg." Her lips quirked into something between a smile and a sneer. "I may have been stupid enough to marry him, but I was smart enough to keep my own bank account and not tell him about it. I worked my butt off from the time I was sixteen. Waitressing, doing short-order work, fry cook. Went to night school and studied restaurant management."
    "Smart. All around."
    "When I got rid of that weight around my neck, I decided if I was going to work my butt