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I shoved my purse back onto my shoulder and picked up the drinks.

“Miss?”

I glanced at the man in the black suit who’d kept me from falling earlier, but all I could see was myself reflected in his dark shades. I didn’t speak. Just waited to see what he wanted.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Just a wrong number,” I said. Then I pressed my lips into a line.

He nodded and returned his attention to the store window as I hurried away. Apparently secret service guys were strange, no big surprise there.

I’d barely moved ten yards before Florence Kilkenny stepped out from the door of her tiny little craft store. The window was full of projects—knitted items, stitched ones, paintings. I could have lost a few hours just spotting everything on display before even venturing inside.

“How are those new paints working for you, honey?”

Shit. I didn’t have time to stop. I didn’t have time… but my feet froze, and my body jolted into action, turning me toward Mrs. Kilkenny—it being way more polite than my brain.

She drew me into the doorway and leaned close. “You got time to call in this morning, Meira? I just had a new delivery. You know what that means.”

I glanced at the coffees in my hands and grimaced. “Not this morning. Will you still be open when I get off work?”

She nodded. “For my best customer? You betcha.”

I laughed, but the humor in her words didn’t prevent them being true. I had no idea how many other sales Mrs. Kilkenny made in a week, but I came in fairly regularly—and even more now that I’d started painting the hummingbird each day.

“You said you’ve had a new delivery?”

She nodded, her face forming gentle wrinkles as she smiled. “Lots of beautiful new colors in that paint brand you like.”

I grinned. It didn’t seem like a coincidence that she was ordering things she knew I’d want to buy. “Oh, the paintIlike, right?”

“Of course. I like to keep my customers happy. Especially my regulars.” She winked at me then glanced around conspiratorially. “What have you been working on?”

“You’re just an enabler.” I said with a slight laugh. “Feeding my bad habits.”

She mock-gasped and brought her fingers to curl at the base of her throat. “Blasphemy,” she declared. “Art is never a bad habit.” She paused long enough to tip her head to the side as though calculating. “And judging by the amount of paint you’ve bought recently, you’re producing a lot of it. Are you going to show me any of your latest pieces?”

I shrugged but stopped mid-motion when the coffee sloshed inside the cups. “I don’t know. They might not be ready.” My stomach clenched at the thought of displaying any of my work, any of myselfin public like that.

Still, the words felt like a lie. The pictures of the hummingbird were among my best pieces to date. I’d just been thinking about selling them at a craft fair.

She eyed me, her expression shrewd. “I think we both know that isn’t true. You’ve been painting up a storm. Something about being here must inspire you.” She cupped my elbow.

I nodded. Holy hell, inspiration… That was the truth. I glanced down Main in the direction of where I lived. “Yeah. Inspiration. It’s beautiful here.”

Mrs. Kilkenny leaned forward. “Beautiful and strange today, don’t you think?” She motioned farther down the street, to where Main joined Tyler, to where the nose of a black car was just visible. “That car has been there all morning. Just sitting at the corner of the street.”

“Okay.” I almost shrugged my shoulders again.

“And there was a guy in here earlier looking at the paint.”

“Huh.” That was a bit more interesting than her other observations. At least it was news to me. “Is there another artist in town?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, hun. His suit looked far too nice to mess up with splotches of paint.”

“His suit?” How many of these guys were there?

“Yeah.” She leaned back a little, her gaze faraway and thoughtful as she directed it over my shoulder into the sun-drenched street. “It’s like something out of an action movie.” She smiled and snapped her eyes back to meet mine. “Or a sci-fi one. Do you think we’ve been invaded by aliens overnight and this is the clean-up crew?”