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able to somehow read the past in her eyes and know that that man had been his younger brother.
    She'd persuaded Sara to let her take care of the after dinner cleanup. She'd thought that doing dishes would give her a few minutes of time to herself, time to recover her equilibrium. But Gareth had followed her into the kitchen to help. Usually, she appreciated that he was as comfortable in the kitchen as he was in the squad room. Her father had never moved beyond the idea that the kitchen was a woman's domain. Tonight, she would have been grateful for a touch of good, old-fashioned chauvinism on Gareth's part, she thought ruefully.
    "I know things got a little crazy, what with Nick coming home in the middle of dinner."
    "If you're worried that I felt neglected, don't be." She glanced in his general direction and forced a smile. "Your parents are obviously thrilled that your brother is home."
    "Yeah. I don't think they really believed he was coming home again." He reached for the oval bowl that had held asparagus. Two fat, green spears lay in the bottom. Absently, he picked one up and bit off the bottom.
    At another time, Kate might have smiled at his predictability. She'd known Gareth for barely six months, but she already recognized his habits. When he ate asparagus, he always started at the stem and worked his way up to the tip. He ran his car—a pale gray, two-door sedan—through the car wash every Thursday afternoon. He always took his first sip of coffee black and then added three lumps of sugar. One of the things she loved most about him was that he always did just what was expected of him, even in the small things in life. She could count on him to do what he said he'd do, to be there when she needed him.
    Unless he found out about what had happened between her and his brother five years ago. Her fingers tightened over the edge of the plate she'd just rinsed. If that happened, she might not be able to count on him for anything at all.
    "It's strange having Nick back," Gareth said.
    "Five years is a long time." But not nearly long enough. Kate set the plate in the dishwasher and picked up a handful of silverware.
    "A long time," he agreed. Absentmindedly, he finished off the asparagus spear and reached for the one remaining in the bowl. "Things always seemed to happen when Nick was around. Even when he was a kid, he could talk people into doing things they'd never dreamed of doing."
    "Hmm." Kate clattered the silverware, hoping to discourage conversation. She didn't need him to tell her about Nick's persuasive powers, she thought bitterly, and then caught herself. Honesty came reluctantly. Much as she would have liked to cast Nick as a villainous seducer, that wasn't the way it had been. She hadn't been an innocent victim five years ago. More's the pity. It would have been nice to be able to lay the blame squarely at his feet.
    "I should have guessed that Harry would be the one to get him to come home," Gareth said.
    "They must be very close. Is Harry a family friend?"
    "Not exactly." Gareth finished the asparagus and carried the bowl over to the sink for her to rinse. "Nick's wife was Harry's granddaughter. Her parents died when she was little more than a baby and Harry raised her. Nick met Harry when he was hired to do some work on the guest house at Spider's Walk. He actually introduced Nick and Lisa."
    "Spider's Walk?" Kate seized on the least important element of the explanation. She didn't want to be reminded that Nick had been married and widowed before he was thirty. She didn't want to feel sympathy for him.
    Gareth grinned. "There's a stained glass window above the door that shows a spider and its web. If I remember the story correctly, Harry's grandmother had the window installed because she admired the industrious nature of the spider. It didn't take long for people to start referring to the place as the spider house, which wasn't exactly what she had in mind. But she figured that, even if she took the window