Hot Rocks

Table of Contents

 

 

REMEMBER WHEN

 

 

 

NAKED IN DEATH
GLORY IN DEATH
IMMORTAL IN DEATH
RAPTURE IN DEATH
CEREMONY IN DEATH
VENGEANCE IN DEATH
HOLIDAY IN DEATH
CONSPIRACY IN DEATH
LOYALTY IN DEATH
WITNESS IN DEATH
JUDGMENT IN DEATH
BETRAYAL IN DEATH
SEDUCTION IN DEATH
REUNION IN DEATH
PURITY IN DEATH
PORTRAIT IN DEATH
IMITATION IN DEATH
DIVIDED IN DEATH
VISIONS IN DEATH
SURVIVOR IN DEATH
ORIGIN IN DEATH
MEMORY IN DEATH
BORN IN DEATH
INNOCENT IN DEATH
CREATION IN DEATH
STRANGERS IN DEATH
SALVATION IN DEATH
PROMISES IN DEATH
KINDRED IN DEATH

FROM THE HEART
A LITTLE MAGIC
A LITTLE FATE

 

MOON SHADOWS
(with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

 

SILENT NIGHT
(with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross)

 

OUT OF THIS WORLD
(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne)

 

BUMP IN THE NIGHT
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

 

DEAD OF NIGHT
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

 

THREE IN DEATH

 

SUITE 606
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

 

THE LOST
(with Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blayney, and Ruth Ryan Langan)

 

 

 

THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION
(edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden)

 

 

 

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

Previously published in
Remember When
by Nora Roberts and J. D. Robb.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 

HOT ROCKS

 

A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author

 

PRINTING HISTORY

Jove mass-market edition / February 2010

Copyright © 2003 by Nora Roberts.

Excerpt from
Big Jack
by J. D. Robb copyright © by Nora Roberts.

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-17157-8

 

JOVE®
Jove Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
JOVE® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “J” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

 

To Mary Kay McComas,
who sort of plays a musical instrument,
but who is the best of pals

Covetous of others’ possessions, he was prodigal of his own.

SALLUST

Who in the world am I?
Ah, that’s the great puzzle!

LEWIS CARROLL

A heroic belch of thunder followed the strange little
man into the shop. He glanced around apologetically, as if the rude noise were his responsibility rather than nature’s, and fumbled a package under his arm so he could close a black-and-white-striped umbrella.

Both umbrella and man dripped, somewhat mournfully, onto the neat square of mat just inside the door while the cold spring rain battered the streets and sidewalks on the other side. He stood where he was, as if not entirely sure of his welcome.

Laine turned her head and sent him a smile that held only warmth and easy invitation. It was a look her friends would have called her polite shopkeeper’s smile.

Well, damnit, she
was
a polite shopkeeper—and at the moment that label was being sorely tested.

If she’d known the rain would bring customers into the store instead of keeping them away, she wouldn’t have given Jenny the day off. Not that she minded business. A woman didn’t open a store if she didn’t want customers, whatever the weather. And a woman didn’t open one in Small Town, U.S.A., unless she understood she’d spend as much time chatting, listening and refereeing debates as she would ringing up sales.

And that was fine, Laine thought, that was good. But if Jenny had been at work instead of spending the day painting her toenails and watching soaps, Jenny would’ve been the one stuck with the Twins.

Darla Price Davis and Carla Price Gohen had their hair tinted the same ashy shade of blond. They wore identical slick blue raincoats and carried matching hobo bags. They finished each other’s sentences and communicated in a kind of code that included a lot of twitching eyebrows, pursed lips, lifted shoulders and head bobs.

What might’ve been cute in eight-year-olds was just plain weird in forty-eight-year-old women.

Still, Laine reminded herself, they never came into Remember When without dropping a bundle. It might take them hours to drop it, but eventually the sales would ring. There was little that lifted Laine’s heart as high as the ring of the cash register.

Today they were on the hunt for an engagement present for their niece, and the driving rain and booming thunder hadn’t stopped them. Nor had it deterred the drenched young couple who—they’d said—had detoured into Angel’s Gap on a whim on their way to D.C.

Or the wet little man with the striped umbrella who looked, to Laine’s eye, a bit frantic and lost.

So she added a little more warmth to her smile. “I’ll be with you in just a few minutes,” she called out, and turned her attention back to the Twins.

“Why don’t you look around a little more,” Laine suggested. “Think it over. As soon as I—”

Darla’s hand clamped on her wrist, and Laine knew she wasn’t going to escape.

“We need to decide. Carrie’s just about your age, sweetie. What would
you
want for your engagement gift?”

Laine didn’t need to transcribe the code to understand it was a not-so-subtle dig. She was, after all, twenty-eight, and not married. Not engaged. Not, at the moment, even dating particularly. This, according to the Price twins, was a crime against nature.