“On your mark, get set…” I turned to look at the crowd in my parents’ living room. All the family, my favorite uncle, Walt, Miles, Lilla and Adele, freaking Fabio, and…Jagger. Not to mention the star of the day, Goldie. I touched his shoulder as he stood with his back to the crowd. “Go!”

Goldie, the one with the new nose, turned around.

The room let out a collective “Wow!”

I threw my arms around him. “You look fantastic!” Sometimes one had to lie to their friends in order not to hurt their feelings.

Goldie’s damn nose looked pretty much the same to me.

Yikes!

If I stood a bit closer, which I did, I noted the slight bump he used to have was gone. Okay, I’d give him that. But there was no drastic change-which gave me a comforting feeling.

The old Goldie really was perfect, and despite all his faults-and there were plenty-criminal Neal must have known and decided not to disfigure Goldie in any way.

I’d thank Neal for that, but not the fact that he tried to kill me and all the other stuff that’d happened, however. No way was I going to visit him in jail.

“Hey.” I felt a set of arms wrap around me and knew instantly whom they belonged to.

“Jagger,” I murmured.

“Why the shiver? Cold?”

“In my mother’s house?”

Jagger chuckled against me. Ah.

“You’re right, Sherlock. This place is always so warm and cozy.”

I couldn’t tell him that I’d momentarily relived the boat incident and my near-imminent death with Neal so I said, “Goldie looks great. Doesn’t he?”

Jagger turned me to face him and stood silent.

“Don’t ever tell him,” I whispered. “Please.”

He nodded then leaned forward. When his lips touched mine, I, of course, melted. Suddenly, while still feeling his touch, tasting his deliciousness, and momentarily losing my mind, I found my arms around his head, found my hands running through his hair. And found myself leaning in.

Oh…my…God.

A tingling started in my fingers and spread, ever so slowly, so sensually, down my arms that I actually let go. Damn, but this guy had some effect on me.

He stepped back.

Shit. Why did my extremities have to be so taken with the enigmatic guy too? Seems when Jagger came near, every part of my body felt him.

“I spoke to the Newport cops today,” he said. “Lydia has been placed in foster care since she’s only seventeen.”

I winced.

“Foster care in Newport, Sherlock. How bad could it be?”

I smiled. “And school?”

“She’s registered for Yale in the fall.”

I smiled again. “I’m so glad.”

“Oh, in all the celebration of Goldie’s nose revealing, I almost forgot. Here.” He took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me. “I’ll get us a drink.” With that he walked away.

I opened the envelope to see the biggest payment that I’d ever received in this job. While my jaw dropped, I pulled out a Jagger handwritten note that said, “Case number six. Practice your driving skills, Sherlock. We’ll talk in the morning-at our spot.”

Our spot.

Those two words had me so shaken, in a good way, that I could barely think about the next case. Practice your driving skills?

Oh…my…God again.

Coming from delicious Jagger, who the hell knew what that meant?

To all my wonderful readers. You guys are great!

It’s so fabulous to hear from you about how you love Pauline and the gang. Glad to be able to brighten your lives with a laugh! I certainly live by the motto that laughter is the best medicine.

To Jay Poynor, my agent, who is a doll and a damn good agent to boot!

To May Chen, my editor. Thanks for all your wonderful input to make this fab book more fabulous! The series can only keep getting better and better with your help. We’re a darn good team!

Thanks to Danielle Bartlett, Avon publicist from Heaven. Thanks for all your hard work and wonderful ideas!

Thanks to all the Avon/HarperCollins employees behind the scenes who contribute to making my work a success.

To all the patients who have suffered to be beautiful-and those of us who only wish we could…

Finally, thanks to whomever else thinks they’ve helped me out somewhere along this fickle road to publication. You know who you are!

After serving in the Air Force as a registered nurse, LORI AVOCATO decided to give up nursing to write fiction. She lives in New England and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, PASIC, NINC, Romance Writers of America, the Author’s Guild, and Sisters in Crime. She’s raising two teenage sons (Heaven help her!), and one darling dog, Spanky. Lori is the author of four previous novels featuring Pauline Sokol, A Dose of Murder, The Stiff and the Dead, One Dead Under the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Deep Sea Dead. She welcomes comments via her website at www.loriavocato.com.