"Put that back. I haven't decided what to order yet,” Sadie said. Her gaze wandered to the window. The man in the black suit peered back at her. His demeanor had changed from confused to distressed.

"You're too old to be buying that kind of stuff.” Attempting to straighten the rest of the items on the bookshelf Jane said, “Why don't you look at something intelligent?"

"Like one of your cooking magazines? I don't know why you bother to read them. You don't follow the recipes anyway.” Sadie batted at Jane's hand as her sister tried to stop her from pulling the catalog back out of the stack. “You're driving me nuts. All you do is clean, clean, clean. It's to the point where I have to Duct Tape my undies to my butt. I'm afraid if I lost sight of them for one second, you'd put them away and I'd never find them again."

When Jane's tidiness drove Sadie to distraction, Sadie countered by creating a mess. Even though Jane's exasperation resulted in a sermon clarifying the finer points of organization, Sadie took pleasure in flustering her sister. However, this sparring hadn't been intentional. Jane's worries had escalated to a feverish level because of a pending lawsuit, a lawsuit that could produce devastating results, and Sadie knew it would be wise to keep her retaliation to a minimum.

Sadie had dealt with crossers for forty years. That she could handle, but not the lawsuit.

2

Jane crossed to the door to let Belly out. “What a nuisance. He's been pacing for the past ten minutes. Everywhere he goes I have to wipe up a puddle of drool.” She peeked through the screen. “Is the guy in the suit still out there?"

Sadie caught sight of movement near a Norway pine as she slid her feet into her rhinestone-adorned sandals and wriggled her toes. “He's still there. He's walking toward the parking lot, but he keeps looking back at our cabin."

"I hope he's not a crosser. I can't take much more stress. Besides, you've already got your hands full."