“Great. You’ll be my first victim. That is, my first guest. I’ll hold the caviar. Seven work?”

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

“See you then. I’m going to go out for Sadie, and we’ll just go around to the car. Do you want Jasper in or out?”

“He has to stay out until he finishes sulking. He sulks after Sadie goes home.”

“Be sure to bring him Friday.”

He stayed where he was while she let herself out the back. Let herself out, he reminded himself, the way a friend would.

Friends.

They hadn’t made a date. She’d invited him and his kids, and his dog, to dinner. Just because the kids couldn’t make it didn’t equal date.

And the sad part? He wasn’t sure he remembered how to date anymore anyway.

So good thing it wasn’t.

And since it wasn’t, he called himself a moron as he pulled up at the big house on Friday night. He’d actually obsessed about what to wear, which was just embarrassing.

He’d settled on jeans—always safe—then because he caught himself debating whether to go tucked or untucked on his shirt, switched to a light spring sweater.

He’d picked up a good bottle of wine, because that’s what you did, but stopped himself from stopping by the florist for flowers.

Too much.

Now, with Jasper all but flinging himself against the door in the back seat, he took one last moment.

“She’s not interested that way, never has been, so knock it off. And you wouldn’t know how to handle it if she was, so knock it off.”

He opened the door, let Jasper plunge out, then streak to the front door. Raylan followed more slowly, as he answered the phone ringing in his pocket. It was Jonah FaceTiming him.

“Jonah.”

“Hey, man, got a minute? I wanted to run this angle by you.”

“Ah, actually, let me get back to you. I’m about to have dinner.”

“Oh, sure. I don’t hear the kids. I always hear the kids when you’re about to have dinner.”

“They’re at my mother’s.”

“Oh, cool. Well, eat while I run this by you. I think it adds a new punch, but we’d have some dominoes to deal with.”

“I’m not home. I’m having dinner with a friend.”

“Dinner with a friend? What friend? Wait a minute. You shaved. You’ve got a date.”

“No. No date.”

“Hey, that’s Jasper. Why’s he whining like that? Hold on! You’ve got a date with Flame! The one with the dog Jasper’s hot on. Holy shit!”

“It’s not a date. Shut up.”

“It’s the smoking-hot workout queen, right? Is she there yet? Are you cooking? No, you said you weren’t home, but you’ve got the dog. Her place! She’s cooking. Ooh la la.”

“Remind me next time I see you to kick you in the balls.”

“Sure, sure. Hey, text me later. I want to hear all about—”

Raylan hung up. It occurred to him the conversation he’d just had could have been replicated by a couple of hormonal teenage boys.

For some reason, that settled him down.

He let the big knocker bang against the door.

She wore jeans—so good decision—and a pale yellow shirt over a skinny white tank. She’d bundled that fabulous hair back and up.

“Right on time,” she said as Jasper made a beeline for Sadie. “Perfect choice.” She took the wine. “This is going to go well with tonight’s menu. Let’s go back and have some now.”

She had music on. Dom had always had music on, too, low, just a murmur in the background.

And the thing that struck him as the same? The scents.

“Whatever the menu is, it smells amazing.”

“It does, so I’m hoping it tastes that way. Popi left me his secret red sauce recipe in his will. A sealed envelope.” She grinned at him as she handily uncorked the wine. “I mean sealed as in with sealing wax. I’m to memorize the recipe, then once again put it into a sealed envelope and in a safe place. I’m to pass it on to my children when and if they’ve earned it.”

She got out wineglasses. “I know your mother has it—that was his level of trust there.”

“Deserved. She’s never revealed it, and she never made Rizzo’s sauce at home.”

“Tonight, I did. We’re having lasagna, which I’ve never made solo. If it’s not as good as it smells? Lie.”

She poured the wine. “Thanks for coming,” she added. “This is a real test-drive for me. Cooking on my own, having someone else eat it, figuring out how to open up this part of life again.”

He took the wine she offered, tapped the glass to hers. “Here’s to successful test-drives.”

“Salute. Why don’t you sit down? We can have the antipasto here before we take the main course in the dining room.”

“A serious meal.”

“An Italian meal.” She got out the long, narrow platter, transferred some of the pepperoncini, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, and the rest—marinated in her grandmother’s signature vinaigrette—to small plates.

“The start and finish? I’m confident, as Nonna taught me. You must cook some, with two kids around.”

“We can’t live on Rizzo’s takeout, much as they’d like to. The grill and the wok are standbys, but I can actually roast a pretty good chicken. Plus, you didn’t grow up with my mother and not learn to cook.”

“I figured that.”

“If I’m pressed … I’d say don’t judge me, but being you, you will. I bust out the chicken fingers and Tater Tots.”

“Mimi would make those now and then when my mother was out of town. Our secret. And I don’t judge.” She ate some provolone. “I educate. My mother judges, but she’s trying to ease up on that.”

“Is that so?”

“We’re … you could say taking a test-drive. Popi’s death really hit her hard. So she’s reevaluated. Even before that. She sent me a text on New Year’s Eve, just after midnight, to wish me a happy New Year. She’d never done that before. And she’s going along, without much pushback, on the high school theme for our new DVD.”

“I’ve been hearing about that. Lots of buzz around the Creek.”

“I’m pretty buzzed myself. I love the idea of the two-generation theme. Two and a half,” she corrected, “as I’m a long way out of high school.”

“Are you using athletes? This is terrific, by the way.”

“Thanks. We’ve got a cheerleader, a football linebacker, a gym teacher, the football coach, so the athletes are represented. We also have science geeks, math nerds, thespians, a student who got a full ride to Virginia Tech.”

She smiled over her wine. “It’s diverse in every way. Sex, age, race, in shape, not-so-much in shape. Putting together a good program that spans that’s been a challenge.”

“Bet you loved it.”

“Bet I did. My mother’s coming back in a few weeks so we can have rehearsals, make sure it all works, time it out with the full cast. Then the crew comes in, we set up, and we shoot over a weekend, two long days, with an after-school backup for a third, if needed.