She couldn’t take any more sexy cops.

Arilyn gobbled the rest of her breakfast and made a plan of attack for the day. She meditated, ingested protein and antioxidants, and owned a clean, pure aura. For good measure, she grabbed some crystals from her meditation corner. Definitely some turquoise to advance healing, communication skills, and prana, the essential life energy. She’d tackle the anger management course with tranquillity. No more losing her temper over Stone’s sarcastic comments or deep drawls or confident male grins.

Arilyn washed the bowl and spoon, dried her hands, and grabbed her purse.

The doorbell rang.

She frowned. What now? She peeked out the window, then held back a groan. No. Not now. But she had no other choice, so she pasted on a smile and opened the door.

Mrs. Blackfire stood on the porch. Her new next-door neighbor, dubbed the Wicked Witch of Verily by Genevieve, and the Spawn of the Devil by Kate, glared from behind her thick-framed glasses. She was a short, petite woman but made up for it in crankiness. Gray tufts of hair sprouted from her head. Her face was a road map of wrinkles that couldn’t have been laugh lines. She wore a faded pink housedress with snaps down the front, support stockings that sagged around her ankles, and thick-soled old-lady shoes. She held on to a walker in her brown-spotted hands, but Arilyn suspected she didn’t need it and only used it for a prop or weapon.

Genevieve and Kate had warned her before she moved in about their problem neighbor. Seems she counted the wine bottles in their recycling bins, used a telescope to spy on people in the neighborhood, and had been previously kicked out of visiting the Best Friends Senior Home for calling the food inspector in to check out the Jell-O. She despised animals, including Kate’s beautiful dog, Robert. And now she stood on her doorstep when Arilyn was already running late.

“Mrs. Blackfire,” she greeted politely. “How are you? It’s a lovely fall day, don’t you think?”

“Not when you have to rake up all the leaves,” her neighbor spat out. “I wanted to talk to you about your property.”

She held back a sigh. “Well, you’d need to speak with Genevieve, since I only rent. Is there a problem?”

“Besides that tree ready to fall on my house?” Her bony finger jabbed at the towering pine tree in the front lawn leaning gently to the right. Genevieve called it the Tree of Spite, since they’d gone to the mats regarding its condition and right to stay.

“Gen said it was a healthy tree,” she said. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Suddenly, her lemon face smoothed out. Her lips curved a bit upward. Was that an attempt at a smile? “I have an idea,” Mrs. Blackfire said quite nicely. “My landscaping service is coming, and they’ll be happy to trim it. No charge, of course. I just need your permission.”

Warning bells clanged in her ear. She glanced at her watch, knowing she had to leave now. “Well, if it’s just a trim, I’m sure Gen won’t mind.”

Her neighbor smiled. Arilyn almost fell back at the flash of straight white, fake teeth. She’d never seen her smile before. Arilyn wondered why her tummy clenched and her skin prickled with danger. Unfortunately, she had no time to decipher why Mrs. Blackfire was that happy over a tree trim.

“I’m sure she’ll be surprised at the finished product,” Mrs. Blackfire said. “Now, you look like you’re in a hurry, dear. I’ll see you later.”

Dear?

The bells clanged louder, but she’d run out of time. Arilyn watched her neighbor disappear down the path with her walker, grabbed her keys, and hopped in the car. No reason to worry, she reminded herself. If a trim made her back off, it was for the best. She’d call Gen later and let her know.

Arilyn sped off down the road. She’d spend a few hours at Kinnections, hit anger management, then conference with Anthony about the dog. She’d already sent the photos over and hoped it would be enough to gain some help.

Her cell pinged on her Bluetooth. Poppy? Arilyn hurriedly pushed the button. “Hello?”

“Arilyn! Thank God you answered. Can you hear me? Hello?”

“Poppy, it’s me. Yes, I can hear you. Are you on a cell?”

“I borrowed Emma’s when she was getting pudding.”

“Are you okay?”

“Bastards! They said I can’t leave. I told Ralph I’d meet him on Main Street in the billiards room for a beer, but they said it’s too far for me to walk and they won’t put me in a cab without your permission. So then I told them I was walking to your house to take care of the dogs, but now they don’t believe me and said they were going to call you to confirm. I won’t let them keep me a prisoner. I’m sneaking out. Doing the Great Escape. But I’ll do the window instead of dig a trench.”

“It’s ten a.m.! You can’t drink a beer and play pool this early.”

“Bah. It’s close to lunchtime. Besides, Ray likes when I help him set up for the day.”

“Did you check your insulin level today?”

“Yes, I’m good. Ray keeps a close eye on me, I swear.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and recalculated her agenda. It was hard to get used to letting others know when he wanted to do something, especially with restrictions. She’d been hoping the trips and packed daily calendar would help, but Poppy was stubborn about what he liked and didn’t. Shoot. “No sneaking out,” she said firmly. “You’ll get in trouble. Give me twenty minutes and I’ll pick you up. You can spend the afternoon with Ray, and I’ll pick you up after my class and we’ll do dinner. No pipe smoking. I mean it, Poppy. Ellen from the center said you were sneaking it in the janitor’s closet and almost set off the smoke alarm.”

“Big tattletale. She needs a man in her life under seventy.”

Arilyn held back a laugh. “She’s just doing her job.”

“I guess. Thanks, sweetheart. I knew you’d understand. You’re the only one who ever did.”

Her chest tightened. “I always will, Poppy. See you in a few.”

She disconnected the call. Okay, she’d get Poppy, hit Kinnections, go to anger management, then go back to pick him up.

No problem.

The morning flew by, and Kate promised to go walk Lenny and Mike at lunchtime. By the time she got to anger management, her morning meditation had become watered down and she lost her temper twice.

Both times with him, of course.

She went over specific techniques to gauge various emotional triggers. Luther and Eli offered honest responses, shared some of their journal writing, and seemed to get a bit closer in their achievement of controlling anger.

Stone took four phone calls during class, citing work, and shared his own creative cartoon he drew in place of journaling.

She was thrilled until she saw it. It consisted of a series of drawings with a criminal running from a cop, turning around, and trying to shoot said officer. Then it showed the officer pausing in the chase, taking a long, deep breath, and chanting “Om.” The final picture showed the cop dead, the criminal free, and a big balloon over the heading Can Breathing Stop Anger or a Criminal?

She’d gotten so angry she made him do endless rounds of Salutation to the Sun and told him he needed to stay another fifteen minutes after class because he had mocked the journaling exercise. His smug grin told her his goal of annoying the hell out of her was working well. She was a teacher who succumbed to anger in an anger management class. If she didn’t calm down, she’d eventually lose Luther’s and Eli’s confidence.

After making him hop on one foot for a long time in the goal of balance, Arilyn checked her watch. Darn. She was late picking Poppy up, and he’d already been at Ray’s way too long.

“That’s enough, Officer,” she said, grabbing her satchel. “I’ll see you tomorrow at Kinnections for our one-on-one evaluation.”

Sweat gleamed on his brow. He wore his usual outfit of jeans, old sneakers, and a worn T-shirt. Today he sported a navy blue NYPD shirt that stretched over a mass of indecent muscles and hard abs. Swaggering off the mat, refusing to show any weakness, though Arilyn knew she’d worked him hard today, he perched his ball cap back on his head and smirked. From under the hat, strands of silky black hair stuck to his forehead. She wondered briefly what his hair would feel like under her fingers. That delicious scent of sweat, soap, and man swarmed around her. How could she be even the tiniest bit attracted to someone who made her nuts?