“No?” Ted repeated, shock in his tone. “Maureen, it’s the perfect solution. And obviously the boy loves being with his grandfather.”

Yes, he does. Way too much. “Jess left him with me. I’m sure she had her reasons.”

“Now, hold on a minute,” Daniel said. “Jess and I had an argument. She’s not used to being denied anything, and so she decided to get back at me by bringing Riley here. It’s not as if she doesn’t trust me with him.”

“How do I know that? The only thing I know for sure is that she wanted me to have Riley for the time she’s gone. The whole time. Period.”

“We need to talk about this,” Ted said with a telling glance at Daniel.

Daniel, obviously realizing that Ted was his ally in his cause, offered to go for a walk.

“Don’t you have a plane to catch or something?” Maureen asked, annoyed that the men were ganging up on her.

“I bought a one-way ticket.”

“Of course you did,” she muttered. “Fine. Go for a walk. Or go into my backyard.” Or go to hell.

He stood. “How much time should I give you?”

“Fifteen minutes?” Ted said when Maureen clammed up. “If you turn right when you leave the house and walk a few blocks, you’ll hit Cortland Avenue. That’s the commercial district. You’ll find a couple of places to get something to eat, if you want.”

“Thanks.” Then he was gone, and the air was filled with unspoken accusations.

Maureen didn’t trust herself to say the right thing. Angry, she pushed herself up and went to the front window, spotting Daniel as he made his way up the street, that jaunty walk of his annoying her even more.

“I don’t appreciate your interference,” she said to Ted, her back to him.

“Interference? This situation involves me, too. Why shouldn’t I be allowed my opinions?”

“Opinions are one thing. Decisions without discussion are another.”

“What do you mean?”

She faced him, crossed her arms. “You decided what would happen. I wasn’t given a say in the matter.” And it made her look weak in Daniel’s eyes, she thought. She couldn’t afford any sign of weakness or Daniel would pounce on it in some way, maybe even enlist Riley in his cause. Riley would probably like nothing better than to go back with Daniel. That thought hurt. “Your plan isn’t going to work for me, Ted.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning we need to postpone the vacation.”

Silence descended, deafening and tense.

He came close to her. “Postponing is the same as canceling, and you know it. It took me weeks to convince you to take this trip. If anything happens to interfere with it, we’ll never go.”

“Even without Riley it’s a horrible time for me to be gone, and you know that. Everything at work is tenuous. I’ve got a shot to be vice president. If I leave, I could very well be saying goodbye to that opportunity.”

“Bernadette gave her enthusiastic approval for you to go.”

“What else could she say? You’re not there every day, under the gun. I know what’s going on, and I know it’s going to be hard for them without me.”

“You’re not indispensable. And it’s only two weeks.”

She heard the underlying anger in his voice, his frustration with her. She understood it, but it didn’t change the fact she had the opportunity to really connect with her grandson for the first time—and by default, reconnect with her daughter. To Maureen, it wasn’t even a decision.

“A postponement, Ted. That’s all. I need to do this. I need to have this time with Riley. And Jess did leave him with me. She certainly wouldn’t want me to pawn him off on someone else. I’m sorry. I know it’s horrible of me to ask you to change plans on such short notice, but I can’t do anything else. I need you to understand that.”

His whole body seemed to sigh. “We’ll probably have penalties to pay for changing our reservations—if we can even get changes. That’ll put us into August. You do realize that Europe goes on vacation in August, right? It could change a lot of our plans.”

“The Louvre will still be there, right? And the Eiffel Tower?” She slipped her arms around him. “And the Venice canals? The Tower of London?”

“I get your point.” He kissed her, but not with much depth or warmth. “I spent a lot of time researching the right hotels and the most efficient train schedules and the best restaurants.”

“We’ll find a bed to sleep in and trains to ride and places to eat.” She wasn’t going to back down, so she hoped that he would. If he didn’t, she didn’t know what she would do.

She remembered his excitement when he gave her his house key. Was she willing to give up all that it represented for this brief time with Riley? She’d been alone all her adult life, having a few relationships that never got anywhere near marriage and having a permanent partner for the rest of her life. Ted was a real possibility for that changing. But if she had to make a choice…There was no choice.

“All right,” Ted said after a long, tense silence. “I’ll rearrange the trip. Jess will be back toward the end of July, right? We’ll allow an extra week, in case something else comes up. We’ll leave on your birthday, August fourth. Okay?”

Her fortieth. She would be celebrating a new beginning to her life as she marked that auspicious birthday—a new relationship with her daughter and grandson, a solid, steady relationship with a man and, hopefully, a new job with loads of responsibility and a nice pay raise.

Turning forty looked to be a banner year.

“Thank you, Ted,” she said, relaxing against him. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“Sweetheart, I see how much it means or I wouldn’t be doing it. Just don’t let it take over your life completely, okay? I need attention, too.”

He was right about that. He’d been so patient about her long work weeks that left her exhausted and edgy. “I’ll try to do better,” she said. “I don’t mean to ignore you.”

“I know you don’t.” He released her. “You’re going to need a sitter or day care or something.”

“Yes. I’ll get busy on that.”

“What’re you going to do about Daniel?”

“Tell him to enjoy his cab ride back to the airport.”

“Something tells me it’s not going to be that easy.”

“He doesn’t really have a choice, does he?”

He shrugged. “Do you need me to stay until he’s gone? I’d like to get going on the changes in our itinerary.”

“That’s fine. I can deal with Daniel alone.” Preferred to. She was glad Ted didn’t care whether or not he was there. “And Riley will want to spend a little time with him. I can’t send him away until they’ve had a chance to talk.”

She walked him to the door and kissed him goodbye, all the while hoping Daniel would get back before Riley woke up. She couldn’t have the honest conversation she needed to have with Daniel in front of Riley, but have it she would.

Really, Daniel had some nerve. All these years he’d had the upper hand. It was her turn.

And there was no way she was going to give an inch to him. No way at all.

Rileyism #2: “I don’t want to be rotten.”

“Grandma, I’m hungry.”

Maureen looked sharply at her watch. Where was Daniel? He’d been gone for three hours. No call. Nothing. “How about some grapes?” she said.

“How about some cookies?” he asked with that missing-tooth smile.

She couldn’t help but smile back. “Too close to dinner.”

“Aw, man.”

She patted the gelled spikes on his head. “Grapes, then?”

“I guess. How come Papa’s not back yet?”

Because Papa is an inconsiderate jerk. “He must be enjoying seeing San Francisco,” she said instead.

The front door burst open then, and Daniel breezed in as if he were welcome.

“Hey, bud,” he said, crouching down as Riley ran to him. “How was the nap?”

“I rested, Papa. I didn’t nap.”

Right. He didn’t nap for two whole hours, Maureen thought with a smile. He’d been so soundly asleep that he hadn’t even flinched when she’d checked on him and had bumped into a chair that skittered a few inches across the hardwood floor.