Summer in Eclipse Bay

yet?"
    "I'm going to do it this morning." She smiled down at him. "Want to help?"
    Excitement bubbled through him. "Yes."
    Nick collected the cups and a paper sack from the Herald and gave the bakery one sweeping glance as he started toward the door.
    "Okay, you two," he said out of the side of his mouth in the stone-cold accents of an Old West marshal. "Let's get the heck out of Dodge."
    "Miss Brightwell's gonna frame Winston today," Carson announced. "I'm gonna help."
    "Cool," Nick said.
    Carson whirled and dashed ahead, completely oblivious to the thinly veiled curiosity that permeated the room.
    "A Harte to his toes," Octavia murmured.
    "Oh, yeah."
    Outside, the remnants of the morning cloud cover were starting to dissipate. The day promised warmth and sunshine by noon.
    The shops across from the pier had begun to open for the day. Octavia noticed that the lights were on inside Bay Souvenirs, House of Candy, and Seaton's Antiques.
    "Looks like I'm running a little late this morning." She stopped in front of the door of Bright Visions and slid her key into the lock.
    Carson and Nick followed her into the gallery and waited while she deactivated the alarm and switched on the lights.
    "Where's my picture?" Carson asked.
    "In the back room with the others," Octavia said. "But we have to finish our chocolate and coffee first before we start framing. Don't want to risk spilling anything on the pictures."
    "Okay." Carson went to work on his chocolate. He seemed intent on downing the contents of his cup in record time.
    "Easy," Nick said quietly.
    There was no threatening edge to the tone of his voice, Octavia noted; no boring lecture on good manners. Just a simple instruction spoken with calm, masculine authority.
    Octavia waited until all three cups were in the waste-basket before she opened the door of the back room.
    "All right," she said, "let's see about getting Winston into a suitable frame."
    Nick followed as far as the doorway of the back room. He glanced at his watch. "The mail should be in by now. I'll run down to the post office while you two work on the picture. See you in a few minutes, okay?"
    "Okay." Carson did not look around. His attention was concentrated on the matting and framing materials that Octavia was arranging on the workbench. "Are you gonna use a gold frame for my picture, Miss Brightwell? I think Winston would look good in a gold frame."
    "We'll try gold and black and see which looks best," she said.
    "Obviously I'm not needed here," Nick said. "See you later."
    The door of the gallery closed behind him a few seconds later. Octavia and Carson, absorbed in their task, barely noticed.
    Mitchell Madison ambushed him when he walked into the post office.
    "Heard you had a date with Octavia Brightwell last night," Mitchell commented, looming in Nick's path.
    "Word gets around."
    "You went out to the Thurgarton place together, picked up some old painting, and then you went to her cottage. That right?"
    "Yes, sir. You are well informed."
    "Now, see here." Mitchell put his face very close to Nick's. "I thought I made it damn clear to Sullivan that I wouldn't stand by while you fooled around with Octavia."
    "Whatever arrangements you made with my grandfather are your business, naturally, but I should probably tell you that I don't generally consult with Sullivan before I ask a woman out. I don't think you can blame him for the fact that I had dinner with Octavia last night."
    Mitchell squinted in a malevolent fashion. "Is that so?"
    "Also, just to set the record straight, I don't call what Octavia and I did last night
fooling around."
    "What the devil do you call it?"
    "A date. Mature adults not otherwise involved in a committed relationship get to do stuff like that."
    "Sounds like fooling around to me." Mitchell's jaw tightened. "She tell you Claudia Banner was her great-aunt and that Claudia's passed on?"
    "I think the whole town is aware of those facts by now."
    "I don't give a damn about the town. I'm only interested in what's going on between you and Octavia."
    Nick lounged against one of the old-fashioned counters, folded his arms, and studied Mitchell with morbid fascination. "Mind if I ask why you're so concerned with the subject of my social life?"
    "Because you've got a reputation for lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em and givin' your girlfriends The Talk so they know up front that you're not serious. I'll be damned if I'll stand by and let you treat Claudia Banner's niece that way. That girl's got