“And that’s exactly why we didn’t call you. It was your wedding night, Beck. You’d had a glorious wedding and plans for an equally glorious honeymoon.” Vanessa paused. “It was a glorious two weeks, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, yes.” Mia sighed. “Totally glorious.”

“There you are,” Vanessa said. “Besides, Hal was here. He knew what to do. He handled it.”

“Well, actually, Grady handled it, mostly.” Hal looked across the table at Beck. “I hope you don’t mind, but I temporarily made him a part-time officer. Mostly because I wanted him to be able to carry, and he didn’t have a weapon with him. Since he was spending so much time with Vanessa-”

“Really?” Mia turned a happy face to her new sister-in-law. “Do tell.”

Vanessa shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing much to tell. He was with me when the break-in was discovered, and while we were checking it out his rental car was damaged. So he offered to stay and watch my back.”

“Is he still here?” Mia turned to Hal eagerly. “Is Grady still working with you?”

“No, it was just for the one day,” Hal explained. “That’s all it took for him to get this guy and take him down.” He smiled at Mia. “The boy is good-took charge, no nonsense, figured out how to get into Ness’s house and create enough of a distraction that he could get Dent to turn his back. But once we had Dent, Grady left for home.”

“The same day?” Mia frowned.

“He said he had…” Vanessa almost said a job to do but she caught herself in time. She’d given him her word that she wouldn’t be the one to spill the beans to Mia about his business venture, and so far, she’d been able to keep that. “Something to do that couldn’t wait.”

“What, a horse to feed?” Mia made a face.

Vanessa shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him.”

“So what happened to the accomplice?” Beck asked. “The woman?”

“No charges were brought against her,” Hal told him. “Jackie Weston wasn’t involved in either the break-in or the damage to Grady’s car, and if she hadn’t come to me when she did, who knows what might have happened to Vanessa. It would have ended very badly for everyone. As it was, the only person who got hurt was Maggie.”

“I don’t understand how Maggie got involved in this whole thing in the first place,” Beck said.

“She’d stopped by my house to drop off something, and Edmund Dent was already there. He forced her inside at gunpoint…” Vanessa told him, “and forced her to call me at the shop and tell me I had to come home, or he’d kill her. Instead, she tried to warn me, told me not to come. I could hear him smacking her around while we were on the phone, so of course, I went-”

“You let her go?” Beck turned to Hal.

“Beck, he couldn’t have stopped me. I had to go. I didn’t want her blood on my hands. Maggie was very brave.” Vanessa took a deep breath and looked across the table to her brother. “I learned something really important through all this. She may not have always been much of a mom-let’s face it, Maggie’d never have been a contender for Mother of the Year-but she’s still my mother. And I guess I… I guess I love her.” She paused and recalled what she’d said to Grady. “Sometimes you just have to let go of the past for the sake of the future.”

“I’m glad that she was gone before we got back. I don’t know that I’m ready to let go, to tell you the truth. I don’t know that I want to,” Beck said. “Pulling that stunt-showing up at the wedding uninvited… I don’t know what she was thinking.”

“Well, now, I guess she was thinking that she wanted to be there on the most important day of her son’s life.” Hal spoke up. “Even if she hadn’t been there for some others.”

When Beck didn’t respond, Hal added, “And I expect she’ll be coming back once she concludes her business in North Dakota.”

“Why would she do that?” Beck asked, his eyes narrowing.

“I suppose because I asked her to.”

The room fell silent for a moment. Then Beck said, “Hal, why would you do that? After all she did… let’s face it, Maggie’s never done anything but hurt you. She’s hurt all of us, everyone who ever loved her.”

“I suspect that people can change if you give them the chance. I’m okay with giving her another chance. Besides, like Vanessa just said, sometimes you have to let go if you want to move on.”

Beck shook his head. “She’s going to hurt you again. She can’t be trusted.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out.” Hal took a sip of his coffee. “Anyone need a refill?”

He looked around the table. When no one spoke up, he turned back to Beck. “I know that this is hard for you, and I’m real sorry for that. But I’m going to ask you to give her a chance. And if you can’t do that, at least keep an open mind.”

Beck was clearly struggling with his feelings.

“Just keep an open mind,” Hal repeated.

Finally, Beck nodded slowly. “Only because you’re asking me to.”

“That’s a start, son.” Hal smiled. “That’s a start…”

SO you don’t think it’s too early for the tennis whites and the cute golf clothes?” Vanessa asked Grace Sinclair over coffee at Cuppachino the following morning.

“Not at all, dear,” Grace assured her. “My son tells me that the tennis courts at the Inn have been booked solid for the past two or three weeks.”

“Great.” Vanessa smiled, envisioning the window display she was going to start on as soon as she went into the shop. “Some of the prettiest things just came in to the shop. I can’t wait to get them all unpacked and on display.”

“When do you think you’ll be able to reopen, Vanessa?” Nita asked.

“I’ll be open on Friday at the regular time,” she said proudly. “The glass has all been replaced and everything cleaned up. It’s all as good as new.” She paused. “Except for the clothes that had been tossed on the floor. I feel as if they’re tainted and I’m having a problem thinking of those things as new merchandise. I was tempted to scrap them but my insurance company would not reimburse me because they really aren’t damaged, so I’m having a sale. Everything that touched the floor will be forty percent off when I reopen. I’m calling it my red-carpet sale.” She grinned. “Because, of course, the rug in the shop is red.”

“Very clever,” Nita told her. “And you can count on me to come in. You know I can’t miss a sale.”

Vanessa drained the coffee from her mug. “I can’t wait to get started on those windows. I’ll see you ladies later.”

She handed her mug to Carlo on her way out the door and crossed the street. Standing in front of her shop, she mentally dressed her mannequins, which, right at that moment, wore white sheets and signs that said WATCH FOR OUR GRAND REOPENING!

And it will be grand, she told herself as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. The boxes of white shirts, skirts, and shorts that had been delivered the day before were piled on the newly replaced counter.

“Maybe an all-white window this time,” she murmured. “Maybe some white geraniums in white… no, maybe silver pots. And something white all bunched on the floor. Not chiffon, I did that for the wedding.” She stood and stared at the mannequins. “Maybe I should do Astroturf to look like a golf green…” She frowned. “But then the window’s not all white.” She paused. “Does it have to be all white?”

She sighed, and tried to feel happier at the prospect of reopening Bling. She’d missed her routine, missed the interaction with her customers.

She’d been missing a lot these days, she reminded herself.

She wasn’t going to think about Grady today. She’d decided when she got up on Monday morning that she was not going to dwell on what could have been. And she wasn’t going to feel sorry for herself. It had been all right to feel sad-she’d give herself sad-but not sorry. And if nothing else, for the first time, she’d had a glimpse of what a good relationship-a healthy relationship-between two people who cared about each other could be like. How could she regret that?