“Kind of a dramatic résumé, now that you mention it,” she said.

“Sid, that has nothing to do with you and me...”

“All right, take it easy,” she said, smiling. “I think it’s a good idea for me to go back to California and work with Dr. Faraday for a few days. Maybe a week. I should take a look at my old job, my past friends. I’ve talked with Rob. He’s trying to work it out with the other night manager. It won’t be for long and I will talk to you every day.”

“When are you leaving?”

“In a week or two. When Rob has the schedule worked out. This is a good time—the kids aren’t in school and they’re helping out in the kitchen almost every day.”

“The best piece of news in this is that I don’t think Rob can manage without you,” Dakota said. “That’s good for me.”

* * *

It took a while for Tom and Lola to work out a time when Tom might catch Trace alone. July was already in its fourth week and it was hot, even in the higher elevations. It was steamy but the forest was brittle.

Tom sat outside on Lola’s porch. Trace was due home from his job at Rob’s bar and had told his mother he was going to get together with a few friends that night to play baseball. It was his typical routine. If Trace worked days, he played ball at night, and if he worked nights, he played ball during the day. Whatever the schedule, he played ball. It made Tom smile.

Trace came up the walk, shirttails hanging out and shoes unlaced. He’d generally graze from the fridge, drink some water, make a quick change, grab his glove and bat and head for the park. Tom stood.

“You looking for my mom?” Trace asked.

“No, she’s working at Home Depot tonight. I was waiting for you. I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes.”

“Why?” Trace asked.

“I got the idea we have one or two things to work out,” Tom said. “Come on, give a guy a break. Sit down here.” He lifted one of two bottled waters on the small outdoor table that separated two chairs. “Here. You look a little dry. Take a load off.”

Trace, reluctantly, it seemed, sat down. Tom reclaimed his seat. “Let me start out by saying, I love your mom a lot but we’re not going to rush you. I can tell you’re pretty worried about us combining households. You’re probably wondering where you fit in if we turn into one big family. We don’t have to do that right away. We have lots of time. We want you to be ready.”

“You said fall,” Trace said. “When school starts...”

“That’s not carved in stone, Trace. If you’re not ready, we can wait.”

“But you want to live together.”

“Oh, yeah,” Tom said with a self-conscious laugh. “It’s amazing to love a woman like your mom and have her love me back. I never thought I could be this happy.”

“And everyone else is okay with this idea of all of us living in one house?”

“Some more than others,” Tom said. “Nikki wants to move to a dorm in Denver at the big campus and she is definitely not excited about sharing a room with her younger sister. Zach, on the other hand, is aching to get closer to Jackson’s stuff, but Jackson is looking for a footlocker with a lock on it. I don’t think Jackson or Cole care what we do—they’re not planning on living with their parents much longer, anyway, but they still need a place to stay when they’re not at school.”

Trace was quiet for a long moment. “I’ve lived in this house almost my whole life. Since I was five, anyway. I don’t remember the house we lived in before.”

“You boys and your mom have been here a long time. Is that what bothers you? Not having this house as an anchor?” Tom asked.

“Sort of,” he said with a shrug. “Or maybe it’s that we’ll live in your house.”

“Ah. That makes sense. Can you think of it as your mom’s house?”

“Listen, man, I like you. You’re a good guy and I know you like my mom. I don’t have any problems with that. It’s just that this is where we live. Where we’ve always lived. And I don’t want to move. That’s all. It’s not personal.”

“Gotcha,” Tom said. “You planning to live with your mother the rest of your life?” he asked.

“No!” Trace said. “Until I get my own place, that’s all!”

“When you’re...like...twenty-six?” Tom asked.

“I just turned eighteen! Hopefully I’ll be living in my own place by the time I’m twenty-one.”

“So if we could wait three more years to get married and move in together...?”

“But then I figure me and Cole will come here for holidays and stuff,” Trace said.

“Oh, I get it. So you want this house and your mother to stay the same until you decide you’re done. With it and with her?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

“Can you be a little more clear about what you mean?” Tom asked. “Because Lola and I decided from the start, our kids come first. We don’t want to rock your world too much, so if you’re going to get sideways about us getting married and living in the same house, we’ll just wait until the idea is more acceptable. But it would help to know what it is you need. So we can try to make it happen.”

“I should be talking about this with my mom,” Trace said.

“Then why haven’t you done that? Because I think your mom is worried. She’s ready for a positive change. Both of us are. I got divorced a long time ago, too. We’re both ready to have a steady shoulder to lean on. Someone to talk about the checkbook with, someone to divvy up chores with. Oh, and your mom has been dying to buy a fixer-upper, remodel and sell at a profit—use all the skills she’s learned working at Home Depot. And I’ve done that twice. We thought if we plan right, we can turn our partnership into a business, too. We’d love to do that. We’re a lot alike—we both have worked as many jobs as it takes to keep our families afloat and we’ll continue to do that.”

“So what’s the big deal, then?” Trace asked.

Tom took a drink of his water. “Well, the big deal is, it’s hard to love someone and not get to see them. When you live in separate houses and you work a bunch of jobs, just finding the time to talk is a challenge. Naturally we’d like to lie down together at night, wake up together in the morning. We’d like to be able to share our days while we do the dishes or spend a couple of hours in front of the TV just not talking. That’s all. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone. We just want to spend time together. Quality time. But...” He stood up. “We took an oath. Our kids come first. We’ll be patient. Would you do us a favor, though?”

“What?”

“Would you talk with your mom about this? Tell her your honest feelings? She really needs to know how you feel.”

“Why don’t you just tell her?” Trace asked.

Tom shrugged. “I might not see her for a couple of days. She’s working and I’m working and we have two houses and six kids to take care of. I’ll try to remember to, but she’d probably appreciate it more if it came straight from you.”

“Okay,” he said weakly. “Sure.”

“Thanks for being honest with me, Trace,” Tom said. “See you later.”

“Yeah,” Trace said.

Tom started down the walk and then he turned. “There is one more thing. I’d consider it a privilege if you could accept me as your stepfather. We couldn’t do this if we didn’t care about each other’s kids. Your mom is really looking forward to having daughters. It would make me proud to add you and Cole to my family. Just so you know.”

Trace didn’t say anything.

Tom didn’t really expect him to.

* * *

“Do I thank Sid for this born-again Dakota Jones?” Cal asked.

“Born-again?”

“You’ve gone from the AWOL Dakota Jones to Dakota the family man.”

“No, it’s not Sid’s doing,” he said with a laugh. “It could be, if she’d give in a little.”

They were in Dakota’s Jeep, headed for Denver. It was Monday, Dakota’s usual day off. Maggie wasn’t due back in Denver until Wednesday, so she stayed home with Elizabeth; they were going to Sully’s, where Maggie would help in the garden and Elizabeth would probably eat dirt.

Sedona had been released from the hospital and was staying at Maggie’s for a couple of days. Bob had come to Denver to check her out and fly home with her, but her brothers asked if she could stay long enough for them to see her.

“Sid is definitely one of the things holding me in Colorado,” Dakota said. “It hasn’t been very long for us but I like it. Don’t get too excited. She’s going to string me along for a while.”

“And why is that?”

“I guess she wouldn’t mind me telling you. She went through an ugly divorce and is coming up a little short in the trust department. She’s not inclined to bet on a man.”

“Especially one she hasn’t known very long?” Cal asked.

“I’m starting to think the longer we’re together and the better she gets to know me, the more it terrifies her. She’s going back to LA sometime soon to give her old boss a hand. But I think it’s more than that. As far as I know she hasn’t been back since Rob brought her out here. I bet she wants to know if there’s anything about that old life she misses.”

“Any worries that she’ll move back?”

“I have no idea.”

“And if she does?”

Dakota sighed and concentrated on the road. “I’m not likely to give up easily.”

“You seem altogether different than the man I thought I knew,” Cal said.

Oh, really? Dakota thought. I ran away from home, spent a lifetime in the Army, went to war a bunch, lost the love of my life to a terrorist, went to jail for a while... Why would I change?