"I'd be happy to loan you some money."

It was definitely the wrong thing to say. She shot upright like a rocket, and the look on her face told him he'd shocked and insulted her.

She didn't give him time to figure out a way to do damage control. "I don't want your money. In Bowen, we take care of our own. We don't expect outsiders to save the day."

"That's pride talking. I was only trying to-"

"Help a little lady in distress? I don't mean to sound rude, but you are an outsider, and you don't understand how important it is

for us to be able to manage the clinic ourselves."

"You saved my life, and I only wanted to…" Her frown stopped him. "You're right. I don't understand, but I'm not going to press you. I'll even apologize. I didn't mean to insult you."

Her expression softened. "Look, I know you meant well, but this isn't your problem. It's mine, and I'll deal with it."

He put his hands up. "Fine," he said. "You deal with it. So tell me, what did the chief of police say? Does he have any idea who

did this?"

"Not yet," she said. "Even if he does catch the kids who did this, I still won't be compensated. No one around here has any

money. Surely you noticed the absence of mansions on your drive into town. Most of the families have to work two jobs just to make ends meet."

He nodded toward the reception room. "This looks pretty bad."

"It's a setback, but I'll recover."

"What about insurance?"

"It will ease the pain, but it won't cover everything. I had to spend a fortune for malpractice insurance, and there wasn't much

left over. To save money, I took a huge deductible." Without pausing for air, she switched topics. "Do you need help carrying

in that box?"

"No."

"You can put it in the back hall and be on your way. Fish won't be biting this late in the afternoon, but you could get settled at Dad's."

She was trying to get rid of him and wasn't being at all subtle about it. She obviously didn't know what she was up against. Theo was every bit as stubborn as she was, and he had already decided he wasn't going anywhere,

"I think I'll stay with you… if you don't mind."

"Why?"

"You've got to be a better cook."

"These days, I don't have much time to cook."

"See? You're already better. Come on. I'll unload that box, and then we can drive over to your place. I want to see your house, unpack, and get out of this suit."

He tried to leave, but she blocked him. "Why?"

"Why what?"

They were standing toe to toe. He towered over her, but she didn't appear to be the least intimidated. "Why do you want to stay with me? Dad has more room."

"Yeah, but you're prettier, and he did offer me a choice. His place or yours. I'm choosing yours. Smalltown hospitality and all that… it would be rude to turn me down."

"You mean southern hospitality, but you still haven't told me-"

He interrupted her. "Let me get settled in your house, grab a cold drink, and then I'll tell you what I think about this mess."

Theo went to the car, got the box out of the trunk, and put it on the floor in the back hall, then waited for her to turn the lights off.

"I should stay and start cleaning," she said halfheartedly.

"When will your friends be coming?"

"The day after tomorrow."

He nodded. "How about if I have a friend of mine go through the place first?"

"Why?"

"To tell me if I'm right or wrong. Take tonight off, Michelle. Then we'll get your brother and your dad to help. It won't take us

any time at all."

"You came here to fish."

"Yeah, and I will fish. Now can we go get a cold tlrink?"

She nodded, pulled the door closed behind them, and headed for the car.

"Cooper told me you sounded scared on the phone."

"I was scared… so scared I've been jumping at shadows." She stopped to smile. "My imagination's playing tricks on me."

"How so?"

"I thought someone was in my house last night… while I was sleeping. I heard a noise and I got up and went through the whole house, but there wasn't anyone hiding in a corner or under my bed. It could have been John Paul. He drops by at odd times."

"It wasn't your brother, though?"

"I can't be certain. He might have left before I called out to him. It was probably just a bad dream, or the house was making a settling noise. I even thought someone might have been at my desk. It's in the library just off the living room," she explained.

"Why do you think that?"

"The phone is always in the upper right-hand corner of my desk… it's kind of an obsession of mine to keep the center of my desk clear so I can work, but when I went downstairs this morning, the first thing I noticed was the phone. It had been moved."

"Anything else?"

"I've had this creepy feeling that someone's been following me." She shook her head at the absurd idea. "How paranoid is that?"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Theo didn't tell her she was paranoid, and he didn't laugh. Unfortunately, his expression on the way to her house wasn't giving her any hints as to what was going through his mind.

"Is that it?" he asked, nodding at the house on the curve of the road.

"Yes," she said, temporarily distracted. "I have the only house on the entire block."

He grinned. "FYL Your house is on a dirt road, not a block."

"By Bowen's standards, this is a block."

The setting was incredibly beautiful. There were at least a dozen big trees surrounding her lot. The wood-framed house had a wide columned porch and three dormers jutting from the roof. There was water about a hundred yards beyond. As he pulled

into the drive, he could see more trees growing crookedly out of the bayou.

"Do you get many snakes around here?"

"Some."

"In the house?"

"No."

He sighed with relief. "I hate snakes."

"I don't know too many people who like them."

He nodded and then followed her up the sidewalk to the front steps. Michelle had a thing for flowers, he noticed. There were flowers in the window planters on either side of the door and more around the porch in big clay pots with ivy spilling over.

She unlocked the front door and led the way inside. Theo put his bag down in the entry next to an old chest and glanced around. By all appearances the house had been painstakingly restored. The hardwood floors and moldings were beautifully finished to a soft luster, and the walls were painted a pale buttery yellow. Theo detected the aroma of fresh varnish. He propped his fishing pole against a wall and closed the door behind him. When he locked the deadbolt, he saw how flimsy it was. He opened the door again, squatted down, and examined the lock closely, looking for signs of tampering. There weren't any visible scratches, but she needed to replace it very soon.

He stepped into the foyer. To the left was a small dining room furnished with dark mahogany table and chairs and a beautifully crafted sideboard on the wall facing the windows. The color was in the rug. It was a deep, bright red with splashes of yellow and black.

To the right of the entrance was the living room. An overstuffed beige sofa faced two easy chairs in front of the stone hearth. A trunk sat on another colorful rug in front of the sofa, and on top of the makeshift coffee table were stacks of books. At the back of the living room were French doors, and he could see the desk beyond.

"The house is really a big square," she said. "You can walk from the dining room into the kitchen and breakfast room, cross the back hall into my office, and then walk through those French doors into the living room. There aren't any dead ends in this house and I like that."

"Where are the bedrooms?"

"The stairs are in the back hallway next to the laundry, and I've got two bedrooms upstairs. They're big, but the floors and the walls still need to be refinished. I'm taking it a room at a time. We'll have to share the bathroom if you don't mind," she added.