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  The shrill sound of her cell phone made Sadie jump. The Grey’s Anatomy ringtone was her twin, Samantha, probably calling to wish her a happy fortieth birthday.

  Or maybe she had sensed something was wrong.

  Sadie and Samantha weren’t identical twins—Sadie had brown hair and brown eyes and Samantha was blonde with blue. Sadie was a respectable five foot seven while her sister barely topped five three. Sadie, while never exactly skinny, was still more on the slim side, while Samantha was what she liked to call “curvy” with a defiant light in her blue eyes.

  Because of their physical differences they’d never been able to switch places with each other and they didn’t have a secret twin language or anything weird like that, but they were pretty close.

  Sadie could usually tell if something was wrong with her sister and Samantha seemed to know if there was anything amiss in her life as well. She’d called Sadie not five minutes after Jeff had shoved the divorce papers at her and stalked out of the house to be with his new girlfriend. Likewise, Sadie had called her sister just moments after their mother’s fatal car crash. Somehow they just knew.

  “What’s wrong?” Samantha asked, the moment Sadie picked up the phone. “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing. I mean, I’m fine.” Sadie didn’t want to worry her twin—or tell her about the embarrassing incident with her neighbor seeing her naked.

  “Bullshit.” Samantha was always frank and to the point—a byproduct of being a woman in a male-dominated field. “You’re freaking out about something—I can hear it in your voice. And, well, I felt it.”

  It was the closest that the practical, down-to-Earth Samantha would come to talking about their invisible connection.

  “I, uh…” Sadie didn’t know how to say it. Finally she asked, “Is there any kind of disease that makes you look younger?”

  “A disease that makes you look younger?”

  “I know it sounds weird,” Sadie said quickly. “It’s just…I woke up this morning and all my gray hairs are gone—just gone. And my wrinkles and stretch marks—they’re gone too. Not to mention my chest looks like I got a boob job and my tummy is flat for the first time in years.”

  “So you lost some weight and you’re looking better? Sounds like a symptom of an ex-asshole-ectomy to me.” Samantha sounded like she was smiling.

  “Stop it, Sammie—I’m being serious!”

  “I am too! Of course you’re looking better—you finally got rid of Jeff! That asshole has been dragging you down for years.”

  “Actually, he was the one who got rid of me,” Sadie reminded her. “Traded me in for a younger model.”

  “So you do the same,” her sister shot back. “Look around for a little action in that tiny one-horse town you’re living in.”

  “Sammie, I’m forty,” Sadie protested.

  “So am I,” her twin reminded her dryly. “Forty isn’t dead. Why don’t you find somebody and have some fun? Aren’t there any hot guys around there?”

  For some reason the image of Mathis and his intense stare popped into her mind but Sadie pushed it quickly away. Besides being a grumpy loner, her neighbor was also at least ten years younger than her. At least she thought he was—it was hard to tell with the wild black hair and the beard.

  “Some,” she admitted. “But the ones my age are already married and taken. And all the rest are too young.”

  “Please—who cares about age?” Her sister made a raspberry sound on the other end of the phone. “It’s just a number.”

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Sadie asked. “Besides, you’re one to be talking about finding a guy—you’re married to your work. I bet you can’t even tell me the name of the last guy you slept with.”

  “It has been a while,” Samantha admitted. “But that’s only because I’m always so busy. You, on the other hand, suddenly have some time to get busy.”

  “I came out here to heal,” Sadie pointed out. “Not find a hot young guy to screw my brains out.”

  “Who says they’re not the same thing?” Samantha laughed. “So how’s the cabin mom left you? I still can’t believe she kept it secret from us for all those years.”

  “It’s nice,” Sadie said, looking around the bedroom. “It’s kind of old and antiquey but not in a bad way. And it’s really quiet—at night you can hear all the animals moving around in the woods outside. And…” She winced. “There are, uh, plenty of windows. Lot’s of natural light.”

  “I bet it’s gorgeous.” Samantha sounded wistful. “You almost make me want to cancel the hip-nailing I have scheduled today and come see it.”

  “Come any time,” Sadie told her sister. “You know mom didn’t just leave it to me. She said in the letter that came with the deed it was for both of us, if we ever lost our husbands and needed a place to stay.”

  “She’d probably be disappointed I never got a husband to begin with,” Samantha remarked.

  “No, she wouldn’t! She’d be incredibly proud of you for fulfilling your dream instead of getting pregnant before you even got through college.”

  It was an old sore spot with Sadie. She loved her sister dearly but she couldn’t help being a little jealous sometimes. They had both had big plans after high school but Samantha had made hers a reality while Sadie had wound up staying home to raise the kids. She had gone back when they were teenagers to get a degree in accounting, but being an accountant was a far cry from the high-powered corporate attorney she’d dreamed of becoming.

  “Are you kidding?” Samantha said. “She’d love you for giving her grandkids instead of wasting your best baby-making years in school.”

  “It’s not too late if you want to start a family,” Sadie pointed out. “Women are having babies into their forties now—you know that.”

  Samantha snorted. “Not this woman. You know I love Graham and Anna but being the cool aunt is as close to motherhood as I ever want to come.”

  “I don’t know…rocking them to sleep, soothing them and feeling them snuggle up in your arms…” Sadie sighed. “Babies are sweet. It’s just too bad they grow up so fast.”

  “You sound like you want another one yourself,” Samantha remarked.

  Sadie shook her head, even though her sister couldn’t see her.

  “Nope, my baby-making days are done. And so are my man-chasing ones. I just want to settle down in this little town and make a new life for myself. One without any trauma or drama or craziness—you know?”

  Of course, she hadn’t made a very good start to her resolution—flashing her neighbor before breakfast—but that had been an accident. And what she told her sister was honestly what she wanted—just a quiet life by herself.

  “I can do without the drama but without the trauma I’d be out of a job,” Samantha said. “Speaking of which, they just brought in an emergency trauma consult. Looks like another kid jumped off a trampoline and landed wrong—might be a broken femur. I’d better go.”

  “Okay. Well thanks for calling. And happy birthday,” Sadie said.

  “Happy birthday to you. Go have fun for both of us—looks like I’m going to be in the OR all day.” Samantha didn’t sound unhappy about it. She loved her job with a passion.

  “Talk to you later and come up to see the cabin anytime,” Sadie told her.

  “Soon, I promise. But not until after my lecture at the Trauma Surgery seminar in Las Vegas. Sin City, baby—whoo-hoo! I might see action before you do after all.”

  “I have no doubt you will,” Sadie said flatly.

  Her twin laughed. “Either way it’s always fun to get away for a while—I’m looking forward to it. Oh, they’re calling me—I really have to go.”

  “Have fun in Sin City,” Sadie told her, but her twin had already hung up.

  With a sigh, she put the phone back down on her night table. She’d gotten up early with the intention of getting some exercise but the grandfather clock in the corner of the bedroom let her know it was time to get ready f