gleaming silver, on the sideboard. David had used her white-on-white china with pale yellow
and green linens for casual elegance. A cool and artful lobster salad was already arranged on each plate. David sailed in with wine.
'Who can I interest in this very nice Pinot Grigio?'
The doctor, Roz noted, stuck with mineral water.
'You know,' Harper began as they enjoyed the main course of stuffed pork, 'you look awfully familiar.' He narrowed his eyes on Mitch's face. 'I've been trying to figure it out. You didn't teach at the U of M while I was there, did you?'
'I might have, but I don't recall you being in any of my classes.'
'No. I don't think that's it anyway. Maybe I went to one of your lectures or something. Wait. Wait. I've got it. Josh Carnegie. Power forward for the Memphis Tigers.'
'My son.'
'Strong resemblance. Man, he's a killer. I was at the game last spring, against South Carolina, when he scored thirty-eight points. He's got moves.'
Mitch smiled, rubbed a thumb over the fading bruise on his jaw. 'Tell me.'
Conversation turned to basketball, boisterously, and gave Logan the opportunity to lean toward Stella. 'Your daddy says he's looking forward to seeing you and the boys on Sunday. I'll drive you in, as
I've got an invitation to Sunday dinner, too.'
'Is that so?'
'He likes me.' He picked up her free hand, brushed his lips over his fingers. 'We're bonding over oleanders.'
She didn't try to stop the smile. 'You hit him where it counts.'
'You, the kids, his garden. Yeah, I'd say I got it covered. You write that list for me yet, Red?'
'Apparently you're doing fine crossing things off without consulting me.'
His grin flashed, 'Jolene thinks we should go traditional and have a June wedding.'
When Stella's mouth dropped open, he turned away to talk to her kids about the latest issues of Marvel Comics.
Over dessert, a rustling, then a long, shrill cry sounded from the baby monitor standing on the buffet. Hayley popped up as if she were on springs. 'That's my cue. I'll be back down after she's fed and
settled again.'
'Speaking of cues.' Stella rose as well. 'Time for bed, guys. School night,' she added even before the protests could be voiced.
'Going to bed before it's dark is a gyp,' Gavin complained.
'I know. Life is full of them. What comes next?'
Gavin heaved a sigh. 'Thanks for dinner, it was really good, and now we have to go to bed because of stupid school.'
'Close enough,' Stella decided.
''Night. I liked the finger potatoes 'specially,' Luke said to David.
'Want a hand?' Logan called out.
'No.' But she stopped at the doorway, turned back and just looked at him a moment. 'But thanks.'
She herded them up, beginning the nightly ritual as thunder rumbled in. And Parker scooted under Luke's bed to hide from it. Rain splatted, fat juicy drops, against the windows as she tucked them in.
'Parker's a scaredy-cat.' Luke snuggled his head in the pillow. 'Can he sleep up here tonight?'
'All right, just for tonight, so he isn't afraid.' She lured him out from under the bed, and stroking him as he trembled, laid him in with Luke. 'Is that better now?'
'Uh-huh. Mom?' He broke off, petting the dog, and exchanging a long look with his brother.
'What? What are you two cooking up?'
'You ask her,' Luke hissed.
'Nuh-uh.You.'
'You.'
'Ask me what? If you've spent all your allowances and work money on comics, I—'
'Are you going to marry Logan?' Gavin blurted out.
'Am I—where did you get an idea like that?'
'We heard Roz and Hayley talking about how he asked you to.' Luke yawned, blinked sleepily at her. 'So are you?'
She sat on the side of Gavin's bed. 'I've been thinking about it. But I wouldn't decide something that important without talking to both of you. It's a lot to think about, for all of us, a lot to discuss.'
'He's nice, and he plays with us, so it's okay if you do.'
Stella let out a laugh at Luke's rundown. All right, she thought, maybe not such a lot to discuss from certain points of view.
'Marriage is a very big deal. It's a really big promise.'
'Would we go live in his house?' Luke wondered.
'Yes, I suppose we would if...'
'We like it there. And I like when he holds me upside down. And he got the splinter out of my finger,
and it hardly hurt at all. He even kissed it after, just like he's supposed to.'
'Did he?' she murmured.
'He'd be our stepdad.' Gavin drew lazy circles with his finger on top of his sheet. 'Like we have Nana
Jo for a stepgrandmother. She loves us.'
'She certainly does.'
'So we decided it'd be okay to have a stepdad, if it's Logan.'
'I can see you've given this a lot of thought,' Stella managed. 'And I'm going to think about it, too. Maybe we'll talk about it more tomorrow.' She kissed Gavin's cheek.
'Logan said Dad's always watching out for us.'
Tears burned the back of her eyes. 'Yes. Oh, yes, he is, baby.'
She hugged him, hard, then turned to hug Luke. 'Good night. I'll be right downstairs.'
But she walked through to her room first to catch her breath, compose herself. Treasures, she thought. She had the most precious treasures. She pressed her fingers to her eyes and thought of Kevin. A
treasure she'd lost.
Logan said Dad's always watching out for us.
A man who would know that, would accept that and say those words to a young boy was another kind
of treasure.
He'd changed the pattern on her. He'd planted a bold blue dahlia in the middle of her quiet garden. And she wasn't digging it out.
'I'm going to marry him,' she heard herself say, and laughed at the thrill of it.
Through the next boom of thunder, she heard the singing. Instinctively, she stepped into the bath, to
look into her sons' room. She was there, ghostly in billowing white, her hair a tangle of dull gold. She stood between the beds, her voice calm and sweet, her eyes insane as she stared through the flash of lightning at Stella.
Fear trickled down Stella's back. She stepped forward, and was shoved back by a blast of cold.
'No.' She raced forward again, and hit a solid wall. 'No!' She battered at it. 'You won't keep me from my babies.' She flung herself against the frigid shield, screaming for her children who slept on, undisturbed.
'You bitch! Don't you touch them.'
She ran out of the room, ignoring Hayley, who raced down toward her, ignoring the clatter of feet on the stairs. She knew only one thing. She had to get to her children, she had to get through the barrier and get to her boys.
At a full run she hit the open doorway, and was knocked back against the far wall.
'What the hell's going on?' Logan grabbed her, pushing her aside as he rushed the room himself.
'She won't let me in.' Desperate, Stella beat her fists against the cold until her hands were raw and numb. 'She's got my babies. Help me.'
