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  “I’m up here,” he called from the top deck. “It’s a houseboat, Vic. I can’t go far enough that you need to yell.”

  “I like yelling your name,” she said, climbing the last stair to the roof. “Also we have mail.” She tossed it in his lap, and he tipped his hat back and grinned at her. God, I’m lucky, she thought, and then, just to make him crazy, she said, “Donald wrote.”

  Harry scowled. “That idiot. Didn’t you tell him you were married?”

  “Yes.” Victoria settled into her chair next to him and looked out over the water. “He wants to know where to buy a houseboat. Sherée is tired of Belize because there’s nowhere to shop, and she heard we’re living on this darling boat and she wants one.”

  “Tell me they are not docking next door,” Harry said.

  “Harry, we own next door,” Victoria told him. “Also, both Donald and Sherée have the attention span of gnats. By the time they’re back in the States, they’ll want something else. They sound happy, and that’s all that matters.” She snuggled down in her chair and lifted her face to the sun. “Life is good,” she said, and then she waved the letters she hadn’t given him. “Alec also wrote. He and Dennie are ecstatic. Oh, and they’re coming down next week on their honeymoon. They’re bringing Walter.”

  “What?” Harry reached for Alec’s letter. “Who’s going to watch the database?”

  “Harry,” Victoria said warningly, holding the letter out of his reach, and he grinned.

  “Right,” he said. “No more database. I’ll just have to make do with you.”

  “Life’s hell,” Victoria agreed, and stretched a little in the sun.

  “Too much sun is bad for you,” Harry said.

  “There’s nothing below but a bed,” Victoria said.

  “Like I said”—Harry stood and pulled her to her feet—“we’ll just have to make do.”

  Sixty-two years it took me to get this, Victoria thought, laughing and following him down the stairs as he tugged on her hand. But when she got to the bedroom, she stopped. “I left Alec’s letter up there,” she told Harry, and ran back up the stairs.

  She found it before it blew away, and as she picked it up she noticed there was something on the back. It was the invitation she’d faxed him five months before. “Thought you’d get a kick out of this,” he’d written at the top. “And by the way, thanks for inviting me. I had a great time.”

  “Four fabulous days and three glorious nights.” More than that, Victoria thought. Fabulous days and glorious nights for the rest of my life.

  The wind blew up and took the letter from her, and she snatched at it to get it back but it blew out to sea.

  It didn’t matter. Its work was done anyway. The last line of the invitation had been right. Her life had never been the same. Victoria lifted her face to the sun one more time, and then went down to join Harry.

  Life really was good.

  Looking for more classic romance from bestselling author Jennifer Crusie?

  Then don’t miss …

  THE CINDERELLA DEAL

  By Jennifer Crusie

  Now available from Bantam Books

  Daisy Flattery is a free spirit with a soft spot for strays and a weakness for a good story. Why else would she agree to the outrageous charade offered by her buttoned-down workaholic neighbor, Linc Blaise? The history professor needs to have a fiancée in order to capture his dream job, and Daisy is game to play the role. But something funny happens on their way to the altar that changes everything. Now, with the midnight hour approaching, will Daisy lose her prince, or will opposites not only attract but live happily ever after?

  Turn the page for a sneak peak inside …

  Chapter 1

  The storm raged dark outside, the light in the hallway flickered, and Lincoln Blaise cast a broad shadow over the mailboxes, but it didn’t matter. He knew by heart what the card on the box above his said:

  Daisy Flattery

  Apartment 1B

  Stories Told, Ideas Illuminated Unreal but Not Untrue

  Linc frowned at the card, positive it didn’t belong on a mailbox in the dignified old house he shared with three other tenants. That was why he’d rented the apartment in the first place: It had dignity. Linc liked dignity the way he liked calm and control and quiet. It had taken him a long time to get all of those things into his life and into one apartment. Then he’d met his downstairs neighbor.

  His frown deepened as he remembered the first time he’d seen Daisy Flattery in the flesh, practically hissing at him as he shooed a cat away from his rebuilt black Porsche, her dark, frizzy hair crackling around her face like lightning. Later sightings hadn’t improved his first impression, and the memory of them didn’t improve his mood now. She wore long dresses in electric colors, and since she was tall, they were very long, and she was always scowling at him, her heavy brows drawn together under that dumb blue velvet hat she wore pulled down around her ears even in the summer. She looked like somebody from Little House on the Prairie on acid, which was why he usually took care to ignore her.

  But now, staring down at the card on her mailbox, appropriately backlit by the apocalyptic storm, he knew there was a possibility he might actually have to get to know her. And it was his own damn fault.

  The thought gave him a headache, so he shoved his mail into his jacket pocket and went up the stairs to his apartment and his aspirin.

  * * *

  Downstairs, Daisy Flattery frowned too, and cocked her head to try to catch again the sound she’d heard. It had been something between a creaking door and a cat in trouble. She looked over at Liz to see if she was showing signs of life, but Liz was, as usual, a black velvet blob stretched out on the end table Daisy had rescued from a trash heap two streets over. The cat basked in the warmth from the cracked crystal lamp Daisy had found at Goodwill for a dollar. The three made a lovely picture, light and texture and color, silky fur and smooth wood and warm lamp glow. Unbelievably, fools had thrown away all three; sometimes the blindness of people just amazed Daisy.

  “Hello?” The petite blonde across the chipped oak table from Daisy waved her hand. “You there? You have the gooniest look on your face.”

  “I thought I heard something,” Daisy told her best friend. “Never mind. Where was I? Oh, yeah. I’m broke.” She shrugged at Julia across from her. “Nothing new.”

  “Well, you’re depressed about it. That’s new.” Julia took a sugar cookie from the plate in front of her and shoved the rest toward Daisy with one manicured hand, narrowly missing Daisy’s stained glass lamp. The lamp was another find: blue, green, and yellow Tiffany pieces with a crack in one that had made it just possible for her to buy it. The crack had been the clincher for Daisy: With the crack, the lamp had a history, a story; it was real. Sort of like her hands, she tried to tell herself as she compared them to Julia’s. Blunt, paint-stained, no two nails the same length. Interesting. Real.

  Julia, as usual, had missed color and pattern completely and was still on words. “Also, you’re the one who has to come up with the bucks for the feline senior cat chow. I should eat so good.”

  “Right.” Daisy scrunched up her face. She hated thinking about money, which was probably why she hadn’t had much for the past four years. “Maybe leaving teaching wasn’t such a good idea.”

  Julia straightened so fast, Liz opened an eye again.

  “Are you kidding? This is new. I can’t believe you’re doubting yourself.” She leaned across the table to stare into Daisy’s eyes. “Get a grip. Make some tea to go with these cookies. Tell me a story. Do something weird and unpractical so I’ll know you’re Daisy Flattery.”

  “Very funny.” Daisy pushed her chair back and went to find tea bags and her beat-up copper teakettle. She was sure the tea bags were in one of the canisters on the shelf, but the kettle could be anywhere. She opened the bottom cupboard and started pawing through the pans, books, and paintbrushes that had somehow taken up housekeeping together.

  “I’m