Heroes are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Page B

not a very good cook,” she said. “One more reason for him to fire me.”
    “I can’t help you out there,” Annie said.
    Annie saw the black cat again and dashed outside without her coat to shoo it away. Later she settled at the kitchen table with her laptop, but the house’s WiFi system was password protected, something she should have anticipated.
    “I always use the phone Theo gave me,” Jaycie said as she sat at the table, peeling some carrots. “I’ve never had to use a password.”
    Annie tried various combinations of names, birthdays, even boat names with no luck. She stretched her arms overhead to ease her shoulders, stared at the screen, then slowly typed in Regan0630, the summer day Regan Harp had drowned after her sailboat capsized in a squall off the island’s coast. She’d been twenty-two, a new college graduate, but in Annie’s mind, she’d be forever sixteen, a dark-haired angel who played the oboe and wrote poetry.
    The door flew open, and Annie whipped around in her chair. Theo Harp stalked into the kitchen with Livia slung under his arm.

Chapter Four
    H E LOOKED AS THOUGH HE ’ D been blown in by a fierce nor’easter. However, the most alarming part of his sudden appearance wasn’t his thunderous expression but the terrified little girl tucked under his arm, her small mouth open in a chilling silent scream.
    “Livia!” Jaycie lurched toward her daughter, lost her balance, and fell awkwardly to the stone floor, taking her crutches with her.
    Annie jumped up from the table and sprang toward him, moving automatically, too horrified by what was unfolding to wait for Jaycie to recover. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    His dark brows knit in outrage. “What am I doing? She was in the stable!”
    “Give her to me!” Annie pulled Livia away from him, but the child was just as frightened of her. Jaycie had managed to push herself into a sitting position. Annie deposited Livia in Jaycie’s lap, then instinctively positioned herself between them and Theo. “Stay where you are,” she warned him.
    Hey! I’m the hero, Peter protested. Protecting people is my job.
    “She was in my stable !” Theo exclaimed.
    His presence filled the cavernous kitchen, taking up all the air. Gulping for a thread of oxygen, Annie planted her feet. “Could you please use your inside voice?”
    Jaycie gasped. Theo’s volume didn’t change. “She wasn’t just standing in the doorway. She was in the stall with Dancer. In the stall. That horse is skittish. Do you have any idea what could have happened to her in there? And I told you to stay away. Why are you here?”
    She ordered herself not to let him browbeat her—not this time around—but she couldn’t match him in ferocity. “How did she get in the stall?”
    His eyes flashed accusation. “How do I know? Maybe it wasn’t latched.”
    “In other words, you forgot to latch it.” Her legs had begun to shake. “Maybe you were thinking too hard about taking your horse out in another blizzard?”
    She’d managed to deflect his attention from Jaycie and Livia. Unfortunately, all his focus was now on her. He flexed his hands, as if he were getting ready to swing a punch. “What the hell are you doing here?”
    The puppets saved her. “Language,” she said, using Dilly’s disapproving voice but, fortunately, remembering to move her lips as she said it.
    “Why are you in my house?” He enunciated each syllable in the same unpleasant manner as Leo.
    She couldn’t let him know she’d been helping Jaycie. “There’s no WiFi at the cottage, and I need it.”
    “Find it somewhere else.”
    If you don’t stand up to him, Scamp said, he’ll win all over again.
    Annie lifted her chin. “I’d appreciate it if you’d give me the password.”
    He stared at her as if she’d crawled out of a sewer. “I told you to stay away.”
    “Did you? I don’t remember.” She had to cover up for Jaycie. “Jaycie told me I couldn’t be here,” she lied,