Two Against the Odds by Joan Kilby

married. This will be a pre-wedding party in lieu of a reception.”
    â€œI’ll pass the message on.”
    â€œSix o’clock. You can come, too, if you like. I understand you’re staying in Summerside for a few days.”
    â€œI wouldn’t want to intrude on a family party.”
    â€œIt’s not just family. There will be lots of people. Please, don’t let me disturb your work. I’ll just go look for the punch bowl.”
    She went out to the kitchen. Rafe could hear cabinet doors opening and closing, dishes and pots being moved around to a background of mild curses. He knew how she felt.
    â€œI can’t find it,” Renita said, returning to the living room. She walked slowly around the room, peering into corners. “She might have used it to put pinecones or shells in. It’s the kind of thing she’d do, never mind that it’s Waterford crystal and fifty years old.”
    â€œHer tax files turned up in the garden shed,” Rafe said.
    â€œThat doesn’t surprise me.” Renita straightened. “I set up a spreadsheet and accounting system for her but she didn’t use it. The envelopes were the next best option. I even reminded her every year when it was time to get her taxes done. It goes in one ear and out the other.”
    Rafe thought back to what Lexie had said about her family. She was right. They didn’t seem to have much faith in her. Granted, that seemed to be warranted.
    Renita glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go. Ask Lexie about the punch bowl, will you?”
    Â 
    H ETTY GINGERLY PICKED UP a large rubber dildo in Day-Glo orange. “Do women actually use these?”
    Lexie put back the tester bottle of perfumed massage oil and glanced up in surprise. “Don’t you have one?”
    â€œI’ve always had your father until recently.”
    The shop’s aisles were crowded with sex products but at midmorning on a weekday, Lexie and Hetty were the only customers.
    Lexie reached for another tester, wondering if Rafe was a musky or a citrusy kind of guy. She shut her eyes, casting her mind back to his sex-warmed skin. His was more of an exotic spicy note. Cumin and coriander with a hint of chili. She sniffed another tester. Perfect. She would enjoy rubbing this over his body. And then rubbing herself over him.
    The shop assistant, a thirty-something womanwith a glossy black bob, piercings and tattoos, approached Hetty. “Do you know what you’re looking for in a dildo?”
    â€œNot really,” Hetty said. “What do you recommend?”
    Lexie stood back as the sales girl talked her mother into buying the Orgasmitron 500.

CHAPTER SIX
    L EXIE CAME THROUGH the front door and dropped her packages in the hall. Rafe was still seated at the dining table, bent over her files. She put her arms around him from behind and began kissing his neck.
    â€œRenita would like to borrow the punch bowl,” he told her, continuing to enter numbers. “She looked around but couldn’t find it.”
    â€œIt’s in the linen closet.” Lexie blew on his ear.
    â€œOf course it is,” he murmured. “Is Hetty with you? Your sister was looking for her, too.”
    â€œShe went home to try out her new dildo.”
    Rafe held up a hand. “Too much information.”
    â€œShe’s a sexual being, just like anyone else,” Lexie said. “There’s nothing wrong with celebrating love.”
    She ran a finger down the back of his neck. She was pretty sure that sexual energy was responsible for sparking her creativity. And she wanted more. “I bought something from the same shop,” she added in a lilting voice. “Aren’t you curious?”
    â€œYou had a phone call while you were gone,” he said. “I let the machine pick it up.”
    Removing her arms, she wandered over to the blinking machine to check her messages. Recognizing the number, she said,