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used to it.”
    Another silence descended, one in which Jake became even more hyperaware of her than he had been before. It was like some kind of invisible cord joined him to her.
    “Jake?”
    “Yeah?” he replied tentatively.
    “Do you want to share the blankets? We could put two of them under us that way, and two on top. We could get close together. Share body heat. That’s a thing, right?”
    “Yeah,” he whispered. It was most definitely a
thing.
“Okay.”
    He rose from the hard floor, the prospect of Harper’s body pressed next to his making him weak.

Chapter Four
    Present Day
    The young, capable-looking young man that had parked Harper’s car on the night of the cocktail party was the one to come and collect her that night from her town house. Harper opened her front door before he had a chance to knock.
    “Hello,” Harper said, stepping over the threshold and closing her door behind her. “It’s Jim, isn’t it?”
    “That’s right,” the chauffer said, seeming pleased that she’d recalled his name.
    He seated her in the backseat of a dark blue Mercedes sedan a moment later.
    “Quite a hot spell we’ve been having, isn’t it?” Jim asked her politely from the front seat of the sedan as he pulled out of her complex a moment later.
    “Yeah. Tahoe Shores will be packed for Labor Day, I imagine, with weather like this.”
    She saw Jim nod as he drove. “Yeah, people will be arriving in droves tomorrow. The barge came today. Always a big deal this time of year.”
    “Barge?” Harper asked curiously.
    Jim met her gaze briefly in the rearview mirror. “The barge that will set off Mr. Latimer’s fireworks?”
    She shook her head, smiling. “I’m new to Tahoe Shores. I’m not sure I know what—”
    “Mr. Latimer puts off an awesome fireworks display, both on the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Everybody thinks it’s better than anything any of the local towns put on, even Reno or San Francisco. People flock to the beaches around here to see it.”
    “Oh . . . that’s nice of him.”
    “Yeah,” Jim chuckled at her understatement. “He’s a really generous guy. Despite it all.”
    “Despite it all?” Harper asked, interested in what a young employee would actually think of Latimer. Was he referring to Jacob’s supposed shadowy past, and the potential need for him to do a lot of positive public relations and philanthropy, in order to make up for it?
    “Despite all his money and everything, he’s a good guy,” Jim explained. “I didn’t know what to expect when I first drove him—Ms. Shields was the one to hire me, so I hadn’t met him until then. But he’s never been anything but nice to me. He really knows a lot about cars and engines and stuff, too, for someone so . . . you know . . .”
    Jim faded off, and Harper didn’t press him to elaborate. She had the impression his youthful enthusiasm had gotten away from him, and that he’d been given strict orders never to be loose-lipped—especially about Latimer himself—with anyone he drove. Had Jacob learned about car engines as well as the workings of boats from the man he’d mentioned the other night on the yacht, the one he’d worked for when he was a teenager?
    Like on the night she’d attended the cocktail party, Elizabeth Shields greeted her on the front steps of the Latimer mansion. She was dressed more casually tonight, but every bit as professionally, in a feminine white blouse and dark blue skirt that emphasized her trim figure. They greeted each other with polite friendliness.
    “Jacob is still in a meeting, but will be with you shortly,” Elizabeth said briskly as she opened one of the heavy pine doors for Harper. She led Harper into the enormous, windowed great room. “He asked me to put you in the den until—” She broke off suddenly, and Harper realized why. Jacob and another man had just walked through the terrace doors on the far side of the great room. Harper saw Jacob’s gaze land on her.