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Jackson stroked Holly’s cheek. “You think you might have everything under control, now?”

“Just about,” Holly said. “But it won’t be over for me until Barney Noble has been convicted.”

“I can understand that,” Jackson said. “I was just wondering if you might be able to take two or three weeks off between now and the trial.”

“I’ve got the vacation time coming,” she said. “What did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know, where would you like to go on your honeymoon?”

Holly held his hand still. “Am I getting married?”

“Yep.”

“Anybody I know?”

“Yep.”

“When?”

“The sooner, the better. I know a judge who will perform the ceremony on short notice.”

“Wow,” Holly said.

“Wow, what?”

“I never really thought I’d get married.”

“Life is full surprises,” he said, kissing her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“You didn’t really ask me, did you?”

“I asked you where you’d like to go on your honeymoon.”

“Oh, that,” Holly said.

“Hawaii? Europe? The Caribbean?”

Holly hugged Daisy and smiled at her fiancé. “Anyplace that takes bitches,” she said.

“I figured,” Jackson replied.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my editor, HarperCollins Vice President and Associate Publisher Gladys Justin Carr, and her assistants, Elissa Altman and Deirdre O’Brien, for their hard work on and on behalf of this book. I would also like to thank Laura Leonard for her efforts in publicizing this and previous books.

I would also like to thank my agents, Morton L. Janklow and Anne Sibbald, as well as everyone else at Janklow & Nesbit for their continuing fine work in furthering my career.

I must also express my gratitude to my wife, Chris, who is always the first to read a manuscript. Her keen eye and sharp tongue help keep me out of trouble.

Finally, I would like to thank those people in a certain Florida town (which Orchid Beach may, in some ways, but not others, resemble) who have so quickly made us feel at home.