“What? You’re giving away my Tonkas? Not on your life. I still want those. That kid’ll just have to get his own toy trucks. Those are mine.”

Rachel shook her head and tried to organize her thoughts. Her collegiate, urbane son who talked about sex ever so casually refused to be parted from his toy trucks. Life was strange. Her son was strange. Heck, in all probability, she was strange. “Mark, I’m hanging up now. Let me know if you have any luck with your dad and call me again some time. But just to talk, you know? It would be nice to hear from you when you didn’t necessarily need something from me.”

Rachel hung up the phone after a series of motherly admonishments about studying hard and making sure he kept his new bicycle tethered with a lock through the bike’s frame, not just the tire. She thought about broaching safe sex, but Mark cut her off, which, when the phone call was all done, left her pacing the living room.

“Now I know how my own mother felt,” she muttered to the walls as she circled the room. “This is like a nightmare and he hasn’t even gotten anybody pregnant yet!” Maybe she should go out in the morning and by a box of condoms. Send them to him, just in case.

For some reason, condom shopping brought to mind Daniel and the idea hit that maybe she could confiscate a few out of the box before she sent it and keep them for herself.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rachel immediately chastised herself. “The poor man’s got his hands full without having to deal with your midlife sexual identity crisis as well.” Again she circled the room, gesturing with big sweeping movements of her hands as she lectured. “Besides, didn’t you learn anything from your experience with Ron? For crying out loud, the man talks you into bed—well, actually the grass in that corner of the football field under the scoreboard, but that’s just details— gets you pregnant, graciously marries you so you can work your fingers, hands, heck, your arms to the bone putting him through school and then the jerk sticks around barely long enough to get the kid out the door, before clearing out himself so fast I’m surprised he didn’t get something vital caught in the door when it swung shut after Mark.” Rachel paused and thought about that. “Actually it’s kind of too bad he didn’t.”

She shook her hand in the air. “Anyway, whatever, the point is, I thought we’d made our marriage work. Yes, it had gotten off to a rough start, but I thought we’d worked through all that and made it. What a fool I was. I don’t want Mark to have to get married, have this carry on to the second generation. And certainly, certainly I couldn’t live through it a second time myself.”

And Daniel Van Scott was simply too attractive for her peace of mind. Right then and there, Rachel made a vow to keep her distance. There was some kind of very odd, no doubt, chemical attraction at play here. She hadn’t felt it, well, in eighteen years, and she’d at least managed to convince herself it had been true love rather than adolescent hormones back then. She no longer wore the blinders of youth, and in a way, it hurt.

No, there was no point in making a fool of herself a second time.

Rachel slept, but not well. In the morning, she cooked a single egg and matched it up with a solitary piece of toast. She washed the one plate she’d dirtied, then took herself out for a walk to explore her new neighborhood. There was a small park a block and a half up. Rachel could see a bank of stores another block after that.

Rachel glanced at the park once more and thought. The sun was shining, the few clouds in the sky were on the run, and although it was September now, summer was still in the air. She walked up to the stores and bought a paperback novel at the drugstore and a foam cup of take-out coffee at the corner restaurant. Carting both items back to the park, Rachel made herself comfortable on a green wooden bench. Most of the toddlers surrounding her were happily playing and provided a pleasant white noise while she basked in the warm sun and read her book.

“Hey, what’s this, another day off? Or do you work nights?”

Rachel instantly knew who had settled on the bench next to her. That low-timbred voice had played a major part in her restlessness last night. “Hi, Daniel,” she said. “I assumed you’d be spending the morning getting your office set up.”

“Hey, Todd, no pushing. That other little boy was on the horsey first. You’ll have to wait your turn.” Daniel yawned and draped his arms along the bench back.

The tips of his fingers were very close to touching Rachel’s shoulders and she’d never been more aware of a man. Not even when she’d been sixteen.

“I got up early,” Daniel admitted, more pleased than he was comfortable with to find Rachel in the park. “Worked for a couple of hours before the champ woke up. I found a playpen in the back of his closet and set it up in the study. He played pretty happily in there for a little while, too. I figured we both deserved a break before lunch. I’ll get more done during his nap. Did you see that kid hit Todd? Where’s his mother? Why isn’t she watching that monster more closely?”

“Todd took his truck.”

“Oh, well, uh, Todd,” Daniel called out, “give the little boy’s toy back. I guess next time I better bring a couple of our own sand toys for him, huh?”

Rachel shrugged more casually than she was feeling. “You seem to be getting the feeling for this pretty quickly. It sounds like you managed just fine this morning.

Daniel stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle. He gave an expansive, contented sigh. “Yeah. I even had a couple of inquiries already from former clients who knew I was going out on my own.” He gave Rachel a sidelong glance. He must have been more harried than he’d thought yesterday. This woman was positively beautiful. And he hadn’t noticed? He was slipping, definitely slipping. But she was here now and so was he. He—

“Really? That’s terrific.”

“Yeah, I just wish I could get my system up a bit faster so I could get some estimates out to people, but it’ll probably take a few more days. No, Todd, keep your shoes on. There might be broken glass or sharp stones in the grass.” After that admonishment, Daniel turned his head and studied Rachel through narrowed eyes. Whoa. Nice eyes. Big and a gorgeous warm brown. “You on vacation?”

Rachel cleared her throat. “Well, actually I’m sort of between positions at the moment, I guess you could say.” Was she ever.

Daniel perked up at that. Maybe persistence could pay off? “Yeah? Well, I haven’t had time to get an ad into the paper, let alone have anyone answer it. I know you said you didn’t want to take a job baby-sitting Todd full time, but what about a kind of temporary thing? You know, help me out until I can get somebody else. When you can, of course. It doesn’t have to be forty hours a week or anything. I’d appreciate whatever help I can get. Like this afternoon, if you’re not busy I could pay you to get my filing cabinets set up while I try to hook up my new printer. I wasn’t able to get to it yesterday.”

He looked at her so hopefully, and once the full force of those sky blue eyes was turned on her, Rachel knew she was lost. She’d probably agree to sell her own grandmother if Daniel asked her to. She took a sip of her coffee and burnt the roof of her mouth. Great. Just terrific. Well, might as well get this over with. “I might come down after lunch. For a couple of hours during Todd’s nap” she cautiously allowed. Cautious? Hah! Rachel began to despair whether she knew the meaning of the word.

Daniel was no fool. He cemented the deal quickly, before she had any opportunity to change her mind. “Great!” Then, evidently afraid to let her out of his sight, he hastened to offer, “You could eat lunch with us, if you wanted. I was going to make grilled cheeses.”