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feeling that he was actually seeing her , not just the person who’d found him. “You…” He fell silent and closed his eyes. Garland waited a few seconds but he didn’t open them again. She pulled down the shades and drew the curtains, then tiptoed down the stairs after Rob.
    “You make a very good surgical assistant, you know,” Rob said quietly as they descended. “Not everyone can face the sight of more than a drop or two of blood.”
    “Oh, I didn’t do much…” Was she blushing?
    “May I make one more request, Nurse?”
    “Um, sure.”
    He stopped on the bottom stair and grinned up at her. “Coffee, please?”
     
    * * *
     
    “So you found them lying on the beach like that?” Rob took a sip of coffee. “Ah, that hits the spot. What a great way to start your first day here.”
    “It’s certainly not what I expected.” Garland leaned back in her kitchen chair and wrapped her hands around her mug. “What do you think happened to them?”
    “I don’t know. But it’s obvious that it was intentional. Torture, maybe. Then dumping them in the water and letting them slowly bleed to death.” His voice was grim and controlled. “Did you see their wrists and ankles? They’d been tied up while this was done to them. Good thing they weren’t left bound or they probably would have drowned.”
    “Dear God.” The few sips of coffee she’d taken turned sour in her stomach.
    “I’m sorry.” He leaned forward and touched her arm. “You didn’t need this today, did you?”
    “My problems seem pretty small compared to theirs.”
    He smiled. “I’d forgotten how delightfully rational you are.”
    And she’d forgotten how charming his smile was. And how good-looking in a boyish sort of way, with thick, straight brown hair that had an endearing habit of falling over his forehead and clean-cut features. It felt strange to be contemplating another man’s attractions.
    She stole a peek at his left hand. Nicely groomed, capable-looking, and ringless. And she hadn’t heard any gossip last summer that he’d been seeing anyone seriously. Young Doctor Mowbray was quite the darling of the town. He paid for it in charity bachelor auctions and the like, which he participated in with cheerful good humor. But evidently no one had managed to win him on a more permanent basis.
    “So you’ve joined us year-rounders.” His tone was light and casual—perhaps a little too much so. “Alone?”
    “My husband and I are divorcing. It’ll be final in a few months. I got the Cape house.”
    “Your choice?”
    “Yes.”
    Rob looked around the bright, airy kitchen. She followed his gaze as it took in the top-of-the-line appliances and custom-made teak cabinetry. “Really?” he said. “This house is a showplace. Didn’t you have it in the Mattaquason House and Garden Tour two years ago?”
    “And the year before that. Actually, Derek was thrilled to be rid of it. He never liked it here very much. But having a summer place in a pricey and hard-to-get-to location was de rigueur in his office. Nantucket won the expensive and inaccessible contest, but the Cape ran a close second. He’s keeping our house in Chestnut Hill for him and his new wife and the kids he’s planning to have. That house makes this one look pretty humble.” She tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
    Rob shook his head. “Trophy house and a trophy wife? Some people have no clue about what’s really important in life, do they?”
    Garland poured herself more coffee. “Oh, I think he knew what was important to him. When I turned thirty-five last year, he decided it was time to divest some long-term holdings that hadn’t performed up to expectations and check the market for growth stocks.” She smiled wryly as she stirred milk into her cup. “My words, not his. But they tell the story pretty well. It’s how he views the world.”
    “What are you going to do, now that you’re here?”
    “Aside from find bodies on my beach?” She