Anywhere You Are by Elisabeth Barrett

in the morning light. “I figured they’d be a hit for fall.”
    “Whoa,” Grace said, fingering the jewelry that dangled from Amber’s earlobes. “Definitely.” The earrings were made of jade, set in hammered silver. “What amazing craftsmanship. Your work just gets better and better.”
    Amber gave her a secret smile. “Can I tell you something?”
    “Sure.”
    “I’m thinking of trying to sell to stores. What do you think?”
    “I think that’s great! But would you give up the farmers’ markets and your online store?”
    “No,” she said. “It’ll take some time to get distribution, so I have to keep the other lines of retail strong.”
    “That makes sense.”
    Amber gave Grace a thoughtful look. “What about you? Have you ever thought about selling online?”
    Grace shook her head. “Not yet. I mean, I’m trying to build up my conservation work along with my art. That’s kind of an in-person thing.”
    “Got it. Still, let me know if you ever want to try it. I feel like you’d probably have a pretty decent platform, to be honest. But I’m guessing you don’t want to go that route.”
    “No,” Grace confessed. “I’m still hoping to keep the attention where it belongs…on the wildlife, not on me.”
    Off in the distance, a dog barked, deep and resonant.
    “Speaking of wildlife…” Amber said, and both women laughed.
    It was so easy to talk to Amber. She lived close by, in nearby Fairfield, but came to Eastbridge frequently during the summer months. Suddenly, Grace got a great idea.
    “I have a few friends who get together every couple of weeks to do a girls’ night,” Grace said. “We hang out, usually at my place, and eat, drink, and relax. Maybe you’d be interested in joining us?”
    “That sounds nice,” Amber said with a smile. “But I’ll be traveling a lot over the next couple of months. This is farmers’ market season, so I have a lot of road shows.”
    “Maybe in the fall, then?”
    Amber gave her arm a warm squeeze. “Count me in. There’s nothing I’d love more than to hang out with you and your friends. I’m sure it’ll be really fun.”
    The deep barking got louder, followed by a scream and a loud crash.
    “Sounds like somebody needs to curb their dog,” Grace said with a frown.
    Amber peered over Grace’s shoulder and her eyes went wide. “Dog?” she said. “It looks more like a horse!”
    Grace turned to follow Amber’s gaze, and then she saw it—a huge Great Dane barreling down the aisle, chasing a squirrel that was zigzagging every which way to avoid the giant animal. The dog was truly enormous, and it was banging into every stand in its path, leaving complete chaos in its wake.
    “Oh, my God,” she breathed.
    There was a huge crash, and a man roared in surprise and shock.
    “There go John Ainseley’s preserves!” Amber said as glass and jam went everywhere. Then croissants went flying and a woman screamed. “And
no,
Martha’s pastries in the stall next to his! Poor Martha.”
    Grace watched in horrified fascination as the animal raced around after the rodent, its leash trailing behind it like a lashing whip.
    “Where’s his owner?” she wondered aloud.
    At that moment, a man came flying around the corner, running balls to the wall after the dog, hollering something unintelligible and oh, God, it was
him.
Marcus Colby, glasses, suit, and all, looking not so much embarrassed as absolutely furious.
Damn,
the man had some speed on him. Clearly, he must work out when he wasn’t working.
    But she already knew that.
    The dog barked again and veered right, then left, then straightened…heading right. For. Them.
    “He’s going to hit my booth!” Amber shrieked, spreading her arms like a shield in front of her table. Like that would stop the dog from destroying every last piece of delicate jewelry.
    Without even thinking, Grace stepped forward, directly into the path of the frightened squirrel, which veered right to avoid her. As the dog