“Who are you talking to?” Franci asked as she came into the room.

“Harry. He hates me. Animals usually like me—what’s his problem?”

“Maybe he just doesn’t trust you,” she offered. “If you want to say good-night to Rosie before you go, now’s the time. Her light is going off in…” She looked at her watch. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Fine,” he said, standing. “Did I do all right today? I mean, she didn’t run screaming from the room or anything.”

“You did very well, Sean. I’m impressed.”

He smiled a small smile, asking himself why that felt so good coming from her. And why, he wondered, did she seem so much older now. She didn’t look older, but she was completely mature. Grounded. Stabilized. If he didn’t have recent proof that under that veneer of serenity there was a sexual bobcat of a woman, he’d think Franci had a double, and he’d got the calm one tonight.

Just thinking about that other Franci got him a little riled, and he thought it was completely reasonable that since he’d played good daddy all day, he might score tonight. Since he couldn’t head for the airport before morning at the earliest, the plan made sense to him.

Rosie gave him a hug good-night, but was busy with her toy laptop computer, making words and pictures. She didn’t look the least bit tired. He said, “Thank you for a fun day.”

And she just said, “’Kay.”

Back in the living room, Franci sat in the corner of the sofa with her feet curled under her. He sat down close to her and reached for her hand. “Let me stay over,” he said.

“No. I have things to get ready for tomorrow. I teach a couple of classes on Monday and Thursday mornings and keep office hours for students in the afternoons. Then I work my twenty-four-hour shifts in Redding on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Tomorrow starts a real busy week and I—”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll watch TV while you get your stuff together.”

“No. You’ll seduce me and I have a child in the house.”

“Gee, how do you suppose all the families with more than one child managed to do that?”

“Those first children were used to their mothers and fathers sleeping in the same bed, but Rosie’s not. Sometimes she crawls in with me in the night.”

“I have sweatpants in my duffel. I’ll sleep in those,” he tried. “No.”

“Can I have the couch?”

“No. Because I know you and you’ll seduce me. I think the only thing more important to you than sex is air. Now be on your good behavior. She isn’t even asleep yet.”

“We should get a few things settled,” he said. He thought, And then I will spend the night! “We should make some plans.”

“Like what?”

“We should get married, I suppose.”

She smiled at him. “Oh? And why is that?”

“Because we’re parents?” he answered as a question.

She was shaking her head. “We’ll be parents either way. That’s not enough of a reason. Besides, how exactly would you handle that? The details?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“It matters, Sean,” she said. “For one thing, I live in Eureka—you live at Beale Air Force Base, a few hours away.”

“Well,” he said, “the air force owns me. I was hoping you’d consider coming to Beale. You and Rosie. That would sure make things simple.”

She just did that frowning-smile thing at him. “That isn’t what you want. You don’t want to be married or have a family.”

“To quote a famous minister I know—that ship has sailed.”

She was quiet for a moment, looking down at her crossed legs. When she lifted her eyes they were very large, but surprisingly soft. “I really need you to try to hear what I’m going to tell you, Sean. You’ve been back in my life a week or so—you’ve known about Rosie less than twenty-four hours. There was a time I would have sold my mother for a commitment from you, but just like four years ago I don’t want that offer simply because we made a child together.”

“She needs a mother and a father,” he stressed.

“She has them,” she answered. “There’s no way we can beat the stork—there’s no point in making a big mistake. Besides, you just want to make some plans so you can spend the night, and you can’t. Not tonight.”

He lifted one light brown brow. “You gonna tell me that wasn’t a real good night, last night? Because if I’m any judge, it worked for you.”

“Totally rocked my world,” she admitted. “I need some time for the rest. I just don’t take something like marriage lightly. If I do it, I’ll mean it, and I won’t change my mind. But I think you’d do it right now for all the wrong reasons.”

“Does this have anything to do with the guy you didn’t let stay last night?” he asked.

“My boyfriend?” she asked, smiling. She knew it was naughty to taunt him like that; she wasn’t thinking of T.J. as a boyfriend at the moment. “It would be nice of me to tell him if things change in my personal life. But until I have matters settled…”

“No, Franci, tell him matters are settled. You won’t be dating him!”

“And the woman who keeps calling you?”

“What woman?” he asked.

“Your phone keeps picking up text messages and voice mails. That has to be a woman.”

He took a deep breath. This didn’t seem like a good time to lie, just as he was trying to close a deal. “I dated this girl a few times back at Beale and I told her I wasn’t getting into a steady thing. When I went on leave, I told her we had to cool it because it wasn’t working for me, but she’s deaf. I thought when I left town for a couple of months she’d let it go, but she’s hounding me. I’m going to call her, Franci, and tell her I’m off the market. That I’m getting married. She won’t call anymore. Now, come on.”

“Poor thing,” Franci said. “She might be as sick in love with you as I was.”

“As you were?” he asked, a little frightened of the answer.

“And I said I’m not marrying you.”

“Okay, let me get this right—I suggested marriage and you said no?”

“How about that? What a shocker, huh?”

“Well, what the hell am I supposed to do? I thought that’s what I should do!”

“Okay, you still don’t get it. We don’t want to because you’re doing what you should. Listen carefully, Sean. I want you to be absolutely sure you want to commit to a life with me and Rosie, because you don’t have to marry me to have time with your daughter. She’s your daughter—I won’t get in the way of that. Though I have to admit, the way you suggested marriage really just knocked me off my feet.”

He would never admit it to anyone, but her refusal gave him an instant feeling of relief. He wasn’t ready to take it all on. But it would sure make things tidier if they could just do it the way it probably should be done.

He slid close to her and, before she could protest, pulled her right up against him. “You wanna get knocked off your feet, sweetheart? Because we both know we do that to each other.” He put a big hand around the back of her neck and ran his thumb from her earlobe to the hollow of her throat. Then he kissed that spot. “I want you with me, Franci. Tonight, and from now on.”

“Sean,” she said gravely, “when you rejected me four years ago, there were times I wondered if I’d lost my mind and my heart. The things we said to each other—I don’t want to risk a marriage like that. After we split and I moved to Santa Rosa, sometimes I grieved so badly I worried that I was hurting the baby with endless crying, sleepless nights, loss of appetite. I just can’t face something like that again.”

He ran a knuckle across her soft cheek. “Baby, I didn’t reject you. I wanted to be with you—I just had a hang-up with marriage.”

“Well, now the shoe’s on the other foot. Suck it up.”

Life would be made a lot simpler, Sean thought, if he could deliver the news to his mother along with a plan for a quick wedding. He made a lot of blunders, but he wasn’t quite stupid enough to admit that to Franci. Instead, he covered her mouth with his and moved over it with passion. He tongued open her lips, pulled her close against him, got hard. It was hell, but he broke away just long enough to say, “I’m gonna show you we need to be together tonight, Franci. When I’m done with you, there won’t be a doubt in your mind.” Then he went after her mouth again.

“Mooommmm-eeeee! What are you dooooo-ing?”

Sean broke away abruptly and turned scarlet. There, at the end of the couch, stood Rosie, her pajama bottoms and panties missing, Harry standing beside her, his tail wagging out of his tutu. Sean grabbed a throw pillow and held it over the bulge in his jeans, although there was no way Rosie would know what was going on with him.

“Kissing Sean,” Franci said very naturally. “Where are your pants?”

“I pooped! I called you to check if I wiped good, but you dint come!” And with that she turned her back on them, bent over at the waist to touch her toes and exposed her butt.

“Arrrggghhh,” Sean groaned, covering his eyes and sliding lower on the couch.

Franci chuckled and stood. “Okey-dokey, looks like you did a good job. I like it when you save the inspection for the bathroom, though,” Franci said. “Let’s get your bottoms on and back to bed.”

Sean collapsed against the couch and thought, I am not ready for this! How does a person get ready for this?

When Franci came back, she was laughing at him.

“Come on, stop it! The learning curve is really high here!” he complained.

“When we get right down to it, marriage would be the least of your adjustments.”

By the time Sean left Franci’s, it was getting late enough that he didn’t want to go back to Luke’s. He decided to head toward Sacramento and stop for the night at a clean, friendly looking motel along the way. He had just pulled into one such motel when his cell phone chimed.

Now, he thought, is as good a time as any to deal with Cindy, and he took the call, saying hello.

“Congratulations, man,” his brother Aiden said. “How about that, huh?”

“Uh, how about what, Aiden?” he asked cautiously.

“A little girl, I hear. Three and a half? Almost four?”

“Who told you?! How do you know that?”

“Who do you think? Luke. He said you caught up with Franci. He told me about the reason she bolted a few years ago. Bet you were surprised, huh?”

“I told that son of a bitch not to say anything yet!”

“I haven’t talked to Mom, so relax. You in Phoenix yet?”

“No, Aiden, I’m not even to the Sacramento airport! I just left Franci’s a few hours ago and stopped for the night. I’ll head there first thing in the morning. She doesn’t know I’m coming.”

“You’re not going to warn her?”

“Nope. Mom never leaves town without checking in with at least three of us, so worst case I wait around while she finishes a bridge game or round of golf. Thing is, I couldn’t head for Mom’s before I squared things with Rosie. I had to tell her who her father is.”

Aiden whistled. “How’d she take it.”

Sean thought for a second. “Truthfully? She wasn’t that impressed. She knew her daddy had a plane and she wants a ride. She took it right in stride, like she’d been expecting me to show up any second.”

“And you?” Aiden asked. “You take it in stride?”