Heaven and Earth Read Free Page A

contrary,” Mia said smoothly. “Neither I nor my possessions need to beg.”
    “You don’t want me to do you a favor?” Ripley lifted a shoulder. “No skin off mine.”
    “It’s so considerate of you to think of me.” Mia’s tone was candy-sweet. Always a bad sign. “But as it happens I just signed with a tenant for the cottage not ten minutes ago.”
    “Bullshit. You were just up in your office, and Nell didn’t say you were with anyone.”
    “On the phone,” Mia continued. “With a gentleman from New York. A doctor. We’ve signed a three-month lease for the cottage via fax. I hope that relieves your mind.”
    Ripley wasn’t quite quick enough to mask her annoyance. “Like I said, no skin off mine. What the hell’s a doctor going to do for three months on Three Sisters? We’ve got a doctor on-island.”
    “He’s not a medical doctor. He’s a Ph.D.—and as you’re so interested, he’s coming here to work. Dr. Bookeis a paranormal researcher, and he’s eager to spend some time on an island conjured by witches.”
    “Fucking A.”
    “Always so succinct.” Amused, Mia got to her feet. “Well, my work here is done. I must go see if I can bring joy into someone else’s life now.” She strolled to the door, waited a beat before she turned. “Oh, he’ll be here tomorrow. I’m sure he’d love to meet you, Ripley.”
    “Keep your weirdo spook hunters away from me. Damn it.” Ripley bit into her cream puff. “She’s eating this up.”
    “Don’t go anywhere.” Nell lifted her order. “Peg comes on in five. I want to talk to you.”
    “I’ve got patrol.”
    “You just wait.”
    “Damn near ruined my appetite,” Ripley complained, but managed to devour the cream puff.

    In fifteen minutes she was stalking outside again, Nell glued to her side.
    “We need to talk about this.”
    “Look, Nell, it’s no big deal. I was just thinking—”
    “Yes, you were thinking.” Nell yanked her wool cap down over her ears. “And you didn’t say anything to me, or to Zack. I want to know why you feel you can’t stay in your own home.”
    “Okay, okay.” Ripley put on her sunglasses, hunched her shoulders as they started down High toward the station house. “It just seems to me that when people get married, they need privacy.”
    “It’s a big house. We’re not in each other’s way. If you were the domestic type, I could see you feeling displacedbecause I have to spend so much of my time in the kitchen.”
    “That’s the least of my worries.”
    “Exactly. You don’t cook. I hope you don’t think I resent cooking for you.”
    “No, I don’t think that. And I appreciate it, Nell, I really do.”
    “Is it because I get up so early?”
    “No.”
    “Because I took one of the spare bedrooms for an office for Sisters Catering?”
    “No. Jeez, nobody was using it.” Ripley felt as though she was being systematically pounded with a velvet bat. “Look, look, it’s not about cooking or spare rooms or your baffling habit of getting out of bed before the sun rises. It’s about sex.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “You and Zack have sex.”
    Nell stopped, cocked her head as she studied Ripley’s face. “Yes, we do. I don’t deny it. In fact, we have quite a lot of sex.”
    “There you are.”
    “Ripley, before I officially moved into the house, Zack and I often had sex there. It never seemed to be a problem for you.”
    “That was different. That was regular sex. Now you’re having married sex.”
    “I see. Well, I can assure you the process works in almost exactly the same way.”
    “Har-har.” Nell had come a long way, Ripley mused. There’d been a time when even the hint of a confrontation would have had her backing down.
    Those days were over.
    “It’s just weird, okay? You and Zack are into themister and missus thing and you’ve got me hanging around. What if you wanted to do the horizontal tango on the living room rug, or just have dinner naked some night?”
    “We’ve