Match Me If You Can

had her stand next to them. She made them laugh-made him smile-and by the time they'd gotten to the end of the photos, he'd decided to forgive her. What the hell. Everybody deserved a second chance. First he'd give her the lecture of her life, then he'd take her back on probation.

Photos done, she set off to help Hannah, who was supervising a game of pin the kiss on the frog. Since Hannah wasn't making anyone wear a blindfold, it didn't look like much of a game to him, but maybe he was missing something. Phoebe and Molly, in the meantime, had started a treasure hunt.

Pippi popped up at his side and tried to frisk him for his backup phone, but he distracted her with an open pot of green eye shadow.

'Pippi! How did you get into that?' Molly shrieked a few minutes later.

He busied himself with the camera and pretended not to see the hard, suspicious look Phoebe shot at him.

Molly gathered the girls under a shady tree and entertained them with a story she seemed to be making up on the spot called Daphne and the Princess Party. She incorporated all the girls' names and even added a frog named Prince Heath who specialized in taking magical pictures. Now that he'd decided to forgive Annabelle, he relaxed enough to enjoy watching her. She sat cross-legged in the grass, her billowing skirts enveloping the children around her. She laughed when they did, clapped her hands, and, in general, acted pretty much like a kid herself.

While the tables were set up for refreshments, he was put in charge of the dragon pinata. 'Don't make them wear blindfolds,' Hannah whispered. 'It scares them.'

So he didn't. He let them whack away to their hearts' content, and when the pinata refused to break, took a swing at the sucker himself and finished it off. Goodies flew. He supervised the distribution and did a damn good job of it, too. Nobody got hurt, nobody cried, so maybe he wasn't entirely clueless about kids.

The refreshments arrived in a sea of pink. Pink punch. Sandwiches made with pink bread, a castle cake complete with pink-frosted ice-cream-cone turrets and a chunk conspicuously missing from the pink drawbridge, undoubtedly the work of young Andrew Calebow. Molly slipped him a beer.

'You're an angel of mercy,' he said.

'I don't know what we'd have done without you.'

'It was fun.' Well, the last twenty minutes anyway, when there'd been some action with the pinata and at least a faint potential for bloodshed.

'Princesses!' Phoebe called from the cake table. 'I know we all want to thank our fairy godmother for taking time out of her busy schedule to be with us today. Princess Molly, we loved your story so much, and Princess Hannah, everyone appreciated all the hugs you gave out.' Her voice dropped to that coo he'd come to dread. 'As for Prince Heath… We're so glad he could help us with the pinata. Who knew his talent for battering things would come in so handy?'

'Brother…' Molly muttered. 'She really does hate your guts.'

Half an hour later, a group of tired princesses headed home with giant goody bags stuffed full of treats for themselves, as well as for their brothers and sisters.

'It was a very nice party,' Hannah said from the front step as the bus disappeared. 'I was worried.'

Phoebe looped her arm around her daughter's shoulders and kissed the top of her head, just behind her tiara. 'You made everybody feel right at home.'

And what about me? Heath wanted to say. He couldn't see that he'd gained an inch of ground with her, even though he'd cleared tables, taken photos, and dealt with the pinata, all without making a single phone call or catching one lousy inning of the Sox game.

Annabelle braced her hand on the porch railing and wiggled out of her fairy godmother dress. 'I'm afraid it has some grass stains and a punch spill, so I don't know if you'll be able to use it again.'

'One Halloween was enough,' Molly replied.

'Thanks so much, Annabelle.' Phoebe gave her the genuine smile she didn't offer him. 'You were a perfect fairy godmother.'

'I loved every minute. How are the twins feeling?'

'Sulky. I checked on them half an hour ago. They're upset about missing the party.'

'I don't blame them. It was quite a party.'

A cell rang. He automatically reached into his pocket, forgetting for an instant that he'd turned off his phone. He came up empty. What…?

'Hey, babe…' Molly spoke into her own cell. 'Yes, we survived, no thanks to you and Dan. Luckily, your valiant agent came to our rescue… Yes, really.'

He slapped his pockets. Where the hell was his BlackBerry?

'Wanna talk to Daddy!' Pippi squealed, reaching for Molly's phone.

'Hold on a minute. Pip wants to say hi.'

Molly lowered the phone to her daughter's ear. Heath headed for the backyard. Damn it! She couldn't possibly have stolen two of them in one afternoon. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he was running around with the pifiata.

He looked under the tree, in the grass, everywhere he could think of, and came up empty. She'd picked his pocket when he'd crouched down to talk to her.

'Are you missing something?' Phoebe cooed, coming up behind him. 'A heart, perhaps?'

'My BlackBerry.'

'I haven't seen it. But if I find it, I'll be sure to let you know right away.' She spoke with all kinds of sincerity, but he suspected if she found it she'd toss it in her swimming pool.

'Much appreciated,' he said.

Annabelle and Molly had returned to the backyard, but Pippi seemed to have gone off with Hannah. 'I'm exhausted,' Molly said, 'and I'm used to being around kids. Poor Annabelle.'

'I wouldn't have missed it for the world.' Studiously ignoring him, Annabelle began gathering up the paper plates.

Phoebe waved her off. 'Leave everything. My cleaning service is coming by soon. While they work, I'm going to put my feet up and recover. I haven't started the new book for the book club, and I have to make up for not finishing the last one.'

'That book was a stinker,' Annabelle said. 'I don't know what Krystal was thinking of when she chose it.'

Heath's ears pricked up. Annabelle and Phoebe were in a book club together? What other interesting secrets was she hiding from him?

Molly yawned and stretched. 'I like Sharon's idea of giving the guys a book of their own to read when we go on our retreat. Last year, whenever they weren't in the lake or with us, they were rehashing old games. I don't care what they say. That's just got to get boring after a while.'

Every cell in Heath's body went on full alert.

'Don't let Darnell choose,' Phoebe said. 'He's hung up on

Marquez now, and I can't see the rest of the men getting too excited about One Hundred Years of Solitude.'

There was only one Darnell they could be talking about, and that was Darnell Pruitt, the Stars' All Pro former offensive tackle. Heath's mind raced. What kind of book club had Annabelle gotten herself involved in?

Even more important… Exactly how was he going to use this to his advantage?

Chapter Ten

Annabelle collected a few more paper plates, even though Phoebe had told her not to bother. She dreaded the idea of being closed up in the car with Heath for the ride home. Phoebe scooped a dab of pink icing from the mangled castle cake and popped it in her mouth. 'Dan and I are both looking forward to the retreat at the campground. We love any excuse to go to Wind Lake. Molly definitely lucked out when she married a man with his own resort.'

'With training camp coming up, it'll be the last break any of us have for a long time.' Molly turned to Annabelle.