Graham and Willow were going to be the most wonderful mother and father in the world. Lucy knew she could learn to feel safe with them.

She glanced across the room, and barely saw the outline of Brittany’s bed, the pile of blankets looking like a jumble of little hills in the moonlight.

Brittany had her own bedroom in this house, but even after all these months, Lucy and Brittany wanted to stay together. The same people who said Lucy was too mature for an eight-and-a-half-year-old couldn’t believe Brittany was almost six. She was small for her age.

Light came in under the door, and it was brighter than the night light, so that meant someone was up.

The surface of the lake, downhill from the big log house where they lived, reflected lights from the boys’ ranch on the other shore, where Blaze Farmer lived.

Lucy loved Blaze, and when she grew up she was going to marry him.

On any other night, if the lights were on at the ranch, it meant that it wasn’t midnight yet. The boys all had to be in bed by eleven, even Blaze, who helped with the younger boys when he wasn’t working at the clinic or in college. Tonight they got to stay up late because of New Years Eve.

Lucy realized, since she’d heard no footsteps rushing down the hallway, that her cries from the nightmare hadn’t been loud enough to be heard though the house. Sometimes she screamed loud enough to wake Aunt Ginger or Graham. Then Aunt Ginger would place Brittany in bed with Lucy, and spend the rest of the night in Brittany’s bed. She’d done that a few times since Mama died last spring.

Aunt Ginger said Lucy had never had the chance to be a child, and that she should learn to be one now that she had a chance. Lucy didn’t know what she meant.

Sometimes, when Lucy woke up from a bad dream and couldn’t stop shaking, she’d creep down the dim corridor to Aunt Ginger’s room. She never made any noise, but sat on the floor in the corner, listening to Ginger breathing…sometimes snuggling into the clothes Ginger’d tossed off when she changed into her pajamas. The smell of Aunt Ginger made her feel safe.

Lucy would miss Aunt Ginger when she moved out.

Tonight wasn’t a good night to wake her up, but if someone was already up anyway…

With slow, careful movements, Lucy pushed the covers back and slid to the floor. Had to be quiet. Brittany shouldn’t wake up again, but if she did she might never get back to sleep.

Lucy opened the door, holding her breath. No sound came from the bed. She crept out into the hallway, but the telephone rang in the front room. She stopped, startled, then glanced back at her sister. No movement.

Who could be calling at this time of night?
*****
Ginger Carpenter reached for the cordless phone beside her chair in the great room of her brother’s lodge—that was how she would have to think of it from now on. No longer home. This would be her last night here.

Curious about who might be calling to wish them Happy New Year, she gave one final, longing glance toward the glow of the full winter moon over the lake.

She would miss this place. After the wedding in Hawaii, Ginger would move into Willow’s condo off Lakeshore Drive. It was situated in a nice area, but it wouldn’t have what Graham’s roomy log house had—two little girls who had taken up so much of her time…and her heart…for the past nine months.

She answered the phone, glancing at the caller ID. It was blocked. “Yes.”

“Ginger Carpenter, that you?” came a deep, gravelly voice that she was too tired to recognize.

“That’s right.”

Larry Bager here.”

Oh. Of course. How could she have forgotten that extremely masculine voice? Larry. Mr. Tough Guy himself. “Why is an undercover investigator calling here at this time of night?”

“I have to clue you and Graham in on some things.”

“What things?” she asked. What was her brother up to this time? When he first hired Larry last year, it was to shadow Willow Traynor without her knowledge—for her own protection, of course, but she hadn’t been happy about it. It had taken some hard convincing for Willow to trust Graham again.