The Parks Empire: Secrets, Lies and Loves. Marie Ferrarella

northward until it disappeared into the salty haze from the sea.

      “This is incredibly lovely,” she said. “The grass is green.”

      Cade pulled into a carport and turned off the engine. “We get condensation from the coastal fog. That’s why the fields along the coast stay relatively green in the summer. The cows will graze on dried grass, too.”

      Cade helped the two females out, then unlocked the front door. Inside the cottage, Sara surveyed the open living area that flowed into a small but modern kitchen. A natural stone fireplace dominated the main wall. To the left of the fireplace was a set of steps to the second story.

      “Your bedroom is back here.” Cade, carrying her suitcase, led the way down a short corridor. “The bathroom is directly across the hall. Linen closet there.” He indicated the doors to each, then entered the bedroom.

      The furniture was made of pine and was simple in design. There was a double bed, a tall, narrow chest of drawers between two windows, a lamp and table next to the bed and a cane chair with a blue cushion beside the table.

      “Here’s the closet in case you need to hang anything.” Cade opened a door to show her a space about eighteen inches wide with a shelf over a clothes rod. He put her case on the floor between the bed and the closet. “We usually walk down to the beach first thing. Do you feel up to joining us or would you rather rest?”

      “I’d like to go, too,” Sara said.

      “Bring a jacket. It might be windy.”

      After he left, Sara removed her pajamas and toiletry case, laid the pj’s on the bed and took the case to the bathroom to freshen up. Upstairs she could hear Stacy calling to her father, but couldn’t make out the words.

      When she returned to the main area, she stood at the window and looked toward the ocean. It was more gray than blue. The horizon blended into a barely discernible line separating sea and sky. For some reason, the lovely vista seemed vast and lonely.

      She smiled slightly, knowing the feeling was within herself. A nagging sense of deception hung over her spirits.

      Stacy clambered down the stairs and dashed toward the door. “Come on, let’s beat Daddy to the shore.”

      Sara followed her student out of the cottage and along a path that led down a rocky slope into a ravine cut by the periodic flow of a creek. From there, they walked out on the sandy shore cluttered with rocks and boulders of various sizes. A few pieces of driftwood littered the beach.

      Cade caught up with them when they paused to remove their shoes and socks. He grinned and added his to the boulder where they left their things.

      “We were here first, Daddy,” Stacy cried and raced into the shallow waves that crested on the beach.

      Sara was in the water past her ankles before the sensation of pain registered in her brain. “Oh, it’s cold,” she complained, hopping from one foot to the other.

      “Your feet will be numb in a minute,” Cade assured her.

      “Right,” Sara agreed. “As soon as they turn to ice.”

      “Look, sea lions,” Stacy called, pointing to a large rock in the water. “You can tell ’cause they have ears.”

      “Sea lions still have visible external ears,” Cade explained. “Seals don’t. That’s how you tell them apart.”

      The animals snoozed in the setting sun. One scratched lazily with a flipper. From down the coast, Sara could hear a foghorn sounding a warning off a rocky promontory.

      “Each foghorn has its own signal,” Cade told her. “By timing the blasts and the silence between, sailors can tell which lighthouse they’re passing, even if it’s foggy. The same is true of the flashes of light.”

      “How interesting,” Sara said, throwing off her qualms about being there. “I didn’t know that.”

      Behind them, the excited barking of two dogs drew their attention. The animals rushed down the ravine.

      “Teddy! Rufus!” Stacy clapped her hands and called the two pets to her. The dogs raced around the girl, jumping, barking and licking her face in delight. One dog had a rusty red coat.

      “That’s Rufus,” Cade told her. “Teddy is the brown-and-white one. Stace thought he looked like her teddy bear.”

      Teddy had thick fur with splotches of brown and white, and patches around each eye. Sara thought he looked more like a panda.

      “I told her she should have named him Panda,” Cade said, echoing her impression.

      Their eyes met, and they both smiled.

      Warmth flowed over her, reminding her of the heat that flared between them when they had kissed. She stared at his mouth and wanted that fire again.

      “Keep that up and I’ll be forced to kiss you,” he murmured, touching her lower lip with a fingertip.

      “Come on,” Stacy yelled, running along the breaking waves with the two dogs circling around her. “Let’s explore the cave. This way.”

      Flustered, Sara hurried after the girl. Behind her, she heard Cade’s chuckle and knew that he knew she was running from him, from herself, from the passion that rose too readily between them.

      After exploring a shallow cave farther down the line of cliffs, they returned to the ravine to climb the path back to the cottage.

      “I’m hungry,” Stacy announced upon their return.

      Inside the cabin, they made sandwiches from supplies that Cade had brought, ate at a round pine table, then continued their exploration of the ranch.

      “We’ll go for a ride in the morning,” Cade promised his daughter when five horses rushed to the fence and stuck their heads over the top of the barbed wire.

      Sara slipped her jacket on as the sun dipped into the ocean and out of sight.

      “It gets cold along the coast at night,” Cade commented as they ambled back to the house.

      Sara nodded. “I read something about the tides along the coast. The current sweeps out of the north, flowing from Alaska, then southward down the continent’s edge. I assume that’s why it cools down so much at night.”

      “Right. The current churns up colder water from the depths of the sea, which produces an afternoon breeze off the ocean and brings in the coastal fog.”

      “I like to walk in the fog,” Stacy told them. “It’s creepy. You could fall off the cliff.”

      “Which is why we don’t run when we can’t see more than a few feet in front of our noses,” Cade reminded the child.

      She laughed and ran ahead with the two dogs.

      Cade shook his head as he lightly clasped Sara’s hand. “Tell me, teacher, how do you keep up with that kind of energy from twenty kids?”

      “With great difficulty,” Sara said.

      They again smiled at each other. It was a moment to savor, she thought. A time out of time, separate from all the troubles that had been or were to come.

      “Let’s make brownies for a snack,” Stacy suggested when they were back in the cottage.

      “Good idea,” Cade said.

      “Can we have a fire?” the girl wanted to know.

      “After we get the brownies in the oven.”

      They ate in front of the fire, then played Go Fish until it was time for Stacy to go to bed. Cade escorted the child upstairs while Sara sat on the sofa, relaxing in pleasant idleness.

      The evening seemed like something in a play—the perfect family holiday…before the aliens landed or the body was found or some other tragedy befell the players in the scene.

      She