Joe grinned. “Take that, Governor Harland.”

  I quickly shook my equilibrium back into place.

  “The governor’s here?” Charmaine asked, looking around.

  “No, but his staff’s been trash-talking our marriage.”

  Her fingers worked fast on her screen. “You two are a little bit scary.”

  “It’s not me,” I protested.

  “That’s why I love working for you,” she said to Joe. She touched the screen with a flourish. “This is going to be fun to watch.”

  Nine

  Joe was appointed to the committee chair position, and Nigel went quiet. In Windward, construction crews all made their deadlines, so the arts and culture center was ready for the harsher weather when the snow started to fly. As it piled up, I made a few more trips to DC, attending events with Joe so Charmaine could keep up our social media posts and make us look like happy newlyweds. Funny thing was, I was a happy newlywed.

  I looked forward more than I should have to sleeping in Joe’s arms. But I pushed away the niggling worry. Joe was a good conversationalist and a great dancer, and he knew a lot of interesting people. And it seemed to me that Sophie’s plan was working, since Joe seemed to be in constant demand by the movers and shakers of his political world.

  Things were running smoothly enough on the construction project that we dropped to a skeleton crew over the holidays, and I decided to spend them in Anchorage with Joe and my family. Charmaine enlisted Sophie as her temporary photographer, and Sophie posted shots of happy pregnant me and solicitous husband Joe in front of the twenty-foot family Christmas tree, then outside walking in the snow.

  We got a sunny, relatively warm day and hitched a sled up to a team of horses. Then we took some very romantic shots outside in the snow. Sophie and I went for a sleigh ride while Joe and Stone went riding with my brothers. He was sexy dressed up as a cowboy, and, after the ride, we cuddled around a bonfire sipping hot chocolate under the bright stars.

  Katie came up to spend New Year’s. On our last day, Sophie, Katie and I settled in the cozy den in front of the gas fireplace for some girl chat, even if Katie did roll her eyes at some of the pregnancy talk. Snow was falling outside the windows, and there was a panoramic view of the fat flakes outside the windows. I was going back to Windward soon, Joe going back to DC. I was sorry to see the holidays end.

  When Stone got home and our chat broke up, I went in search of Joe, wanting to catch the final hours of our last day together in what felt like a happy paradise.

  I heard Braxton’s voice and guessed Joe was with him. They were beyond the stone fireplace in the great room, just out of my view.

  “Right behind our backs,” Braxton said with disgust.

  “Harland could be lying,” my dad put in.

  “He knows too much for it to be a bluff,” Joe said.

  “And he got it from somewhere,” Braxton agreed.

  “They’ll throw everything they’ve got at us. They won’t pull their punches.” Joe’s voice got louder as I drew closer.

  “But a spy?” my dad asked, incredulously.

  “Can you come up with another explanation?” Braxton asked—demanded, really.

  “Here?” Joe asked. “In your house?” He looked up and saw me. “Adeline,” he said, toning himself down. It was framed as a greeting, but I knew he was alerting my father and my uncle to my presence.

  Their backs to me, both older men turned.

  “What’s going on?” I asked them all.

  “Just a little chitchat,” Braxton said.

  “You’re going with that?” I counted incredulously. Then I looked at Joe, challenging him to lie to me, too.

  “What did you hear?” Joe asked.

  “Oh, no, no, no.” I waved his question off. “That’s not how this is going to work. What’s Governor Harland doing?”

  The three men all looked at each other.

  I crossed my arms, tempted to tap my foot. “You can’t come up with a plan while I’m standing right here,” I told them.

  Joe rose and came to me. “I don’t want you to worry.”

  “I’m not some delicate little flower.”

  “You’re six months pregnant.”

  “And it hasn’t affected my brain.”

  “We think there’s a spy in the house,” Braxton whispered.

  Joe and my dad glared at him.

  “She wants the truth,” Braxton said.

  “In the house? This house?” I couldn’t help lowering my voice, too, and glancing over my shoulder.

  “The governor’s office knows way too much about the family’s personal business,” Joe explained. “Someone’s been feeding them information.”

  “I thought Nigel was bluffing,” I said.

  “Nigel?” Braxton asked.

  “Back in September,” Joe said. “Nigel Long was bragging that they were onto us.”

  “It sounds like they were.”

  “Who here would cooperate with Nigel?” I asked.

  It wasn’t a family member, that was for sure. And I couldn’t imagine it was Sebastian or Marie or someone who’d been with us for years. Maybe someone temporary had overheard a conversation or two.

  “That’s what we’re about to figure out,” my dad said.

  “How?” I asked, thinking Joe and I should have taken it more seriously back then, feeling partially responsible.

  “It’s not an insurmountable problem,” Joe said, looking into my eyes.

  “I want to help,” I told him.

  “You can help just by acting as you normally would.”

  “You mean fake normal, pretend-marriage normal.”

  “Assume people could be listening.”

  “This is creeping me out,” I admitted. I hated the thought that I couldn’t let my guard down even inside the house.

  “That’s what I wanted to avoid,” Joe said.

  “Coddling me was a bad plan. We should tell everybody.” My brothers, Sophie, Katie—any one of them could give something away in front of a staff member or acquaintance.

  “We will,” Braxton said. “Carefully.”

  I nodded, agreeing with that. Then I glanced around again, wondering if there were microphones hidden in the lamps.

  “We’ll sweep for electronics,” my dad stated.

  It seemed overly dramatic, but I realized it was way too easy these days to hide a listening device anywhere.

  Another thought occurred to me. “Maybe they hacked our phones, turned them into hot mics. I read where you can do that.”

  “It’s harder than you think,” Joe said. “But we’ll check that, too.”

  “What is wrong with people?” I asked rhetorically.

  “All you have to do is go back to what you were doing,” Joe said. “What were you doing just now?”

  “Thinking I could use a snack.”

  “You want me to get you something?”

  “No. I can do it. That would be what I’d normally be doing.”

  “Then carry on.” Joe touched my arm and leaned in, giving me a kiss on the hairline.

  I took a breath and gave myself a bracing mental shake, settling the new information into my brain as I headed for the kitchen.

  I couldn’t help padding quietly over the carpet, glancing around, wondering if someone was peeping around a corner at me, watching what I was doing.

  “I do not want to keep sneaking around,” Katie said as I approached the entryway.

  The words stopped me cold. No way did she mean what it sounded like she meant.

  “Nobody cares.” It was Mason’s voice, and when I eased forward, I saw he was leaning, hip braced against the breakfast island.

  Everybody cared. I couldn’t see Katie, but my brain reeled with the notion that my brother and dear friend could be plotting against us. It simply wasn’t possible.

  “I care,” Katie said, sounding impatient.

  “Then what do you want to do?” he asked, straightening and moving.

  I eased farther forward to see him go to her, standing at the coffee maker.

  “I don’t know,” she said, sounding distraught.

  Stunned to my toes, I was about to march in and demand answers when Mason reached to smooth her hair.

  His voice went lower, smoother, deeper. “Ignore it?”

  “Maybe.”

  “No.” There was a chuckle in his voice. “Not an option.” He kissed her.

  He kissed her, and she kissed him back, and reality hit me with a wave of relief.

  They weren’t spying on Joe and me. They were falling for each other.

  I started to step back, but Mason saw the movement.

  He jolted from Katie and stared straight at me. Regret flashed in his eyes. “Sorry.”

  I was relieved and surprised and happy for them all at the same time. “For liking Katie?”

  Hearing my voice, she whirled around, looking guilty.

  I continued talking to my brother. “I like Katie. I like her a lot.”

  Her face was flushed as she stared at me. “We—”

  “You don’t have to explain,” I said. “I get it. And I respect your privacy and my brother’s.”

  “We don’t know what it is,” she said.

  “It’s very...new,” Mason finished.

  “You both seemed into each other the first night you met,” I pointed out, thinking I should have guessed back then. They’d started off sparring but then were the last ones to leave the balcony.

  They glanced self-consciously at each other, and I realized I was intruding on a highly intimate conversation. I raised my palms and took a step back. “Forget I was here.”

  But Katie stepped forward. “Adeline—”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not like Joe and I don’t have a complicated romance.”

  Mason’s attention shifted to something behind me.

  Joe’s hands closed gently over my shoulders. He leaned down, humor threading his tone. “This is you doing fake normal?”

  * * *

  It was anticlimactic to discover the culprit was a temporary cook’s assistant gossiping to someone with a girlfriend in the governor’s office. It wasn’t a sophisticated spy network, and there were no hidden microphones in the house. There was also no malware in our phones, so we were able to go back to our usual behavior.

  Katie liked Mason, and Mason liked Katie, but with so many miles between them, it was hard for their relationship to go further than that.

  I was working long hours with the decorating team as they installed the millwork, finished the walls and finalized the flooring and furniture choices. Theater seats were on their way from Europe, while the lighting was back-ordered, and we were struggling to find an installation specialist for the sound system.

  Sophie and Stone’s baby was due in less than a week, so we were all on alert, and I was making sure I had my phone with me every minute.

  William and I stood on the concrete floor of the main complex. Though we wore steel-toed boots, hard hats and vests, we stayed back from the scaffolding where workers were installing the drop ceiling.

  “The planters will curve around the staircase,” Maddy, the head interior designer, was telling us. “I want to bring them out three feet at the apex to give us room for larger trees. With the clear stories above, we could have a real conservatory space with benches, tables and a cobblestone walkway.”

  My phone pinged, and I immediately thought of Sophie going into labor. My stomach contracted in what I assumed was a sympathy pain, and I smiled to myself as I discreetly pulled the phone from my pocket to check the screen.

  It was a business text, not about Sophie.

  I sighed my disappointment and tuned back into Maddy.

  “I don’t see a problem with the traffic flow,” she said, walking partway across the room to show how much space would be left as a result of her suggestions. She raised her voice. “It wouldn’t interfere with event lineups to the main desk. And it would give such a nice interior space for winter. Imagine, real greenery and a parklike atmosphere in January.”

  Since it was February now and bitterly cold, I had to agree with her on that.

  I felt another twinge in my stomach and shifted my stance. I wondered if cousins could be psychically connected during childbirth. Maybe I’d hear from Sophie any minute now. Maybe she and Stone were already on their way to the hospital in Anchorage.

  “As a reflection of the main space,” Maddy said. “Let me show you what I was thinking for the retail area.” She started to walk that way.

  I looked at William to gauge his thoughts, wondering if he’d be open to a change at this stage of construction. There was time to do it, although we did need to watch our budget. A change here, an upgrade there, and we were moving into our contingency funds.

  I fell into step with him several feet behind Maddy. “What’s your—” A sharper pain crossed my stomach, and I gasped, stopping to cover it with my hand.

  That had hurt.

  “Adeline?” William asked, concern in his tone.

  “Something’s weird,” I said, still thinking of Sophie.

  “Do you need to sit down? Some water?”

  “Maybe.” Sitting down sounded like a good idea.

  He pointed to a card table and two folding chairs near the bottom of the staircase.

  Maddy had stopped and was looking back at us.

  When she saw where we were headed, she came our way. “Everything all right?”

  “Fine,” I answered even though a low-grade soreness had settled into my stomach.

  I sat down, and she crouched in front of me.

  “Is it the baby?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. It’s way too soon. My cousin Sophie is—” The sudden sharp pain gripped me again, and I groaned.

  “Call an ambulance,” Maddy blurted to William.

  “That’s overkill,” I said, but thinking maybe I would call my doctor.

  “It might be,” Maddy agreed. “But let’s not take any chances.”

  I slipped my phone out of my pocket again and pulled up my doctor’s office contact. “Dr. Reed,” I said to both of them.

  “Good idea,” Maddy said, but she made a phone sign to William at the same time, and I knew they were calling for an ambulance.

  I was slightly embarrassed, especially now that we’d caught the attention of some of the construction workers.

  “Reed Clinic,” Jill the receptionist answered.

  “Jill, it’s Adeline.”

  “Oh, hey, Adeline.” Jill’s voice was cheerful. “How are you doing?”

  “Okay,” I answered. “Well, a little funny.”

  Her tone immediately changed. “Funny how?”

  “A few pains in my stomach.”

  “Sharp or dull?”

  “A little of both.” A sharp one hit me again, and I clenched my teeth.

  “Adeline?”

  “I’m here.” My tone was tight, and I could feel sweat breaking out on my skin.

  “Can you come in this afternoon?”

  Maddy held out her hand for my phone.

  It seemed easier just to hand it over.

  “This is Maddy Schmidt. I’m with Adeline now, and we’ve called for an ambulance.” Maddy stopped to listen. “I agree.” She paused again. “Sounds good. We’ll meet her there.” She ended the call and handed back my phone.

  “No more messing around,” she told me sternly.

  I could already hear the ambulance siren. The sound was gathering even more attention from the workers.

  “I can walk,” I said and started to get up.

  Maddy put her hand on my shoulder. “Sit.”

  “That’s an order,” William added as he strode for the front door to meet the paramedics.

  “Well, this is embarrassing,” I said to Maddy.

  “You’re doing what’s best for the baby.”

  I decided to think of it that way and nodded, even as a man and a woman dressed in navy blue uniforms wheeled a stretcher my way.

  They helped me on board and immediately took my blood pressure.

  The woman cupped my stomach with her hands. “Contractions?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  She kept still for a couple of minutes, then another pain hit, and I tensed up.

  “I felt a tightening,” she told me gently.

  “That was me,” I said.

  “How old are you?” she asked.

  “Twenty-eight.”

  “How many weeks pregnant?”

  “Thirty-six.”

  She keyed her radio. “I have a twenty-eight-year-old female patient, thirty-six weeks pregnant, showing signs of premature labor.”

  “I’m not.” I shook my head and reached for her arm to stop her. I didn’t want people getting ahead of themselves on this.

  “Her doctor’s en route to the hospital,” Maddy told the paramedics.

  “I don’t think I’m in labor,” I told the paramedic. Technically, I knew it was possible. But these pains weren’t all that bad. I’d had worse with the flu.

  “Try to relax,” she told me. “We’re going to take good care of you.”

  The stretcher started to move, and I closed my eyes to keep from getting dizzy.

  They loaded me into the ambulance, and in minutes we were pulling up to the back entrance of the hospital.

  To my surprise, Dr. Reed got into the ambulance. My first thought was they’d realized there was no point in taking me inside. It was a relief. I had a lot of work left on my desk. In fact, my purse was still in my office. I needed to go back for it.

  I started to sit up, but Dr. Reed stopped me.

  “You’re just fine right where you are,” she said.

 

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