“We had each other,” Viv said. “Franci came alive when we moved up here. Actually, I said I’d come north only if I could find a good job. I only agreed to take an unpaid leave from my Santa Rosa job to give it a try. Franci flies out of Redding, so we initially went there, rented a small apartment and, on Franci’s days off, I scoured the area for work. When I had a good offer in Eureka, the decision was made—we bought a little house together here. Franci works a couple of twenty-four-hour shifts three weeks a month, then only one on the fourth week. It’s a long commute—but it’s only seven or eight days a month, and my job never requires an overnight or on-call status. After two years in one little house, another just like it down the street came on the market and I bought it. We joined forces to make sure Rosie always had one of us plus the babysitter. It’s been all right. It’s been good. She was even starting to date again. But…”

“But…?” Maureen asked.

“You didn’t know her after she broke up with Sean, so you wouldn’t see the difference—but since Sean’s been in the picture, she’s a different person. She loves him so much. And I believe he loves her just as much. I don’t know how this is going to work out, Maureen, but those three need to be together.”

“Sean told me he suggested marriage to Franci…” Maureen said.

“Really? That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Vivian said with some astonishment. “I’m surprised Franci didn’t jump on that offer. There must be something not quite settled between them. Frankly, I don’t care whether they get married or not as long as they follow the strength of their obvious feelings! Well, I’m staying out of it. Except for one thing—I’m going to be sure Franci knows she doesn’t have to consider me in her decision.”

“You?” Maureen asked.

Vivian nodded. “I don’t want her to think I need her to take care of me—not emotionally or in any other way. I have a full life and look forward to the next stage. I have a wonderful man in my life—I expect he’ll be around a very long time. We’ve been seeing each other the past year and both of us have had commitments that have kept us from moving forward—he’s a fairly new widower with two teenagers, and I’ve had my responsibilities to Francie and Rosie. But Carl and I have both known for quite a while that when our kids don’t need us quite as much, we’ll have more of each other.”

“Really?” Maureen said, intrigued. “A man?”

Vivian laughed. “A wonderful man. He was one of my bosses. A year after his wife’s death he invited me out to dinner, and that was all it took.”

Maureen leaned toward Vivian. “An office romance? I heard that was taboo!”

“Pah! We work together very well! I imagine we will for many years!”

“How amazing.”

“You’ll meet him sometime. In the meantime, my offer stands. If you want to stay close to Rosie, but give your boys some space, Rosie’s overnight room makes a perfectly useful guest room. You’re welcome to it.”

“But you obviously have a private life!”

Vivian just laughed. “Don’t let that get in your way! Especially in your wild imagination! Once you meet Carl, you’ll be completely at ease around him. He’s a physician—a wonderful, warm, loving man. Besides, we don’t have many pajama parties, Carl and I. As I said, he has teenagers at home!”

Maureen was thoughtful for a moment. “You’re very liberal in your thinking, aren’t you, Vivian?”

“I suppose I am,” Viv said. “And you’re quite the prude, aren’t you?”

“So I’m told,” Maureen said, somewhat grumpily.

Vivian laughed. “We should make an interesting and strange pair!”

Eleven

Once Rosie was tucked in, the lights were out and it was quiet, Sean and Franci sat on the living room sofa, a couple of glasses of wine on the coffee table. They talked quietly and the side of Sean she rarely saw was illuminated. Franci had wanted him to grow up, act like a family man, show responsibility. Then when he did, she wanted the old Sean back, fanciful and full of spontaneity. Seeing Sean act like an adult was a little scary.

She had to admit, when he got down to business, he was up to the job. His list of things that had to be done immediately was impressive. First he intended to visit the air force JAG and get a new will drafted so his daughter would be taken care of. He was going to transfer money out of his investments into a college trust for Rosie, a large enough stake so that even if Franci never contributed another dime, it would probably grow into enough. He had a hundred-thousand-dollar life-insurance policy in which his mother was beneficiary—all the Riordan boys did. They had not begun to help support their mother yet, but it looked as though the time was growing near. As often as these boys were involved in risky jobs, they had all agreed on individual policies so that each one would be holding up his end.

But Sean was going to immediately apply for an additional two hundred and fifty thousand, plus sign over his military death benefit to Rosie, with Franci as the executor, so that if the worst happened she and Rosie would be cared for.

“I’ll get those things taken care of right away,” he told her. “And I’ll spend the morning on the phone with MPC about assignments but, as you probably remember, that can take weeks. Now I have to ask you this—will you even consider going with me on assignment?”

“I don’t know,” she said wearily, uncertainly. She sipped her wine. “Sean, I’m so enmeshed in this place. I own a house and Rosie is settled. I don’t need that job at the college, but it’s good for me—it not only keeps me sharp, but I use their track for some running, and work out in the college weight room. And there’s my mom…”

“I know,” he said softly.

“She’s my best friend. And she moved up here with me to help take care of Rosie. They’re real close.”

“I know.” He leaned toward her. “Is there anyplace you’d be willing to go with me?”

“Huh?” she returned. “I don’t under—”

“There are U-2 assignments around the world, Fran. Accompanied tours. Alaska, England, Okinawa, the Philippines, the high desert in Southern California. I could probably sell my soul for a non-flying staff job in San Antonio at the Military Personnel Center or the Pentagon until Air Command and Staff materializes. It’s always hard to get back in the cockpit once you do that, but I’m willing to take that chance.” Then he shrugged. “I could skip any assignments that come with a time commitment, just get the three years I owe them out of the way, then do my best to get an airline job.”

She gave a huff of laughter. “Sean, the airlines are in the tank. They have such a deep pilot furlough list, none of them are hiring.”

“I could go in the cabin business with Luke,” he said. He reached toward her and ran a finger through that super-short hair at her temple. “You need time to think.”

She felt her eyes glisten with tears. “I wanted time for us to get to know each other again. So far so good,” she said. “But it’s only been a little over a week.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him and across his lap, holding her against him. “And it’s been good. Very good. Think as fast as you can, Franci.”

“Maybe the best thing for us to concentrate on is how we can be the best co-parents. We seem to do that pretty well. We both love Rosie.”

He put his lips against her neck. He licked his way up to her ear. “We’ll always be more than co-parents, and you know it.”

Sean and Franci made out on the couch until clothing got in the way, then by mutual consent they went to her bed. Sean was the one to close the door so Rosie wouldn’t find them and be traumatized; Franci was the one to supply condoms.

“I missed a condom once,” he murmured against her lips. “What a lucky break that was.”

“You wouldn’t have thought so at the time,” she pointed out.

“You were right about one thing, Franci—we’ve both changed a lot in the past few years and I’m for not going back.”

And then he went to work on her body in his own expert way. He kissed her ankles, sucked her toes, licked her inner thighs, worked her clitoris with his tongue. He pushed his thumb into her velvety softness while he licked at her core. He snaked the other hand up to her mouth to cover it so that her moans of ecstasy were muffled. When she claimed she couldn’t bear another orgasm, he was inside her, rocking her slowly and gently—excruciatingly slowly and gently. He pressed rhythmically against the deepest part of her and the build came upon her gradually, but when she tried to hurry him, to push him to move deeper, faster, he kept up that easy pace until she whimpered. Begged. “Please, Sean…Finish…” She dug her heels into the mattress and pushed back hard.

His chuckle was soft and low; his thrusts grew deep and powerful, and that was all it took. She broke apart from the inside, clenching against him, grabbing him to her, bathing him in hot liquid. And he said, “Ahhhh, baby. I love that sweet spot.” And he slammed into her, letting himself go in a low moan of pleasure.

He held her in the aftermath for a long time, the blanket drawn over them. She finally whispered, “You should go. You have a lot to do in the morning.”

“I’m staying tonight. Put on my T-shirt and I’ll sleep in my jeans in case someone’s wandering in the night. But I’m staying.”

“Your mother will know you spent the night with me…”

“I dare her to say one word to me,” he said. “I want to be with you.”

Franci wanted to argue, but not really. She pulled on his shirt as he told her to and enjoyed the scent of him. She was vaguely aware of Sean slipping into his jeans and she smiled to herself. She knew he liked to sleep in the nude and would be uncomfortable, but she appreciated his protection of Rosie’s innocence.

And when she woke hours later in the predawn, she found Rosie curled against his chest, sleeping between them, safe and content.

Francine cut out of school a little on the early side on Monday. Her classes were finished and she didn’t have any appointments, and she knew that Sean would be at the house with Rosie. Maureen would probably be there, too. She found herself anxious to hear about their day. Rosie was having a circus with a new daddy and grandma.

Franci had to hand it to Maureen; she was coming off very relaxed and accepting. If memory served, Franci knew her to be rather stiff in her morals—she did not, for example, approve of unmarried people having sex. For Sean and Franci, that ship had sailed long ago. And Maureen would notice that Sean had not gone back to Luke’s last night.

Franci had called Sean between her classes and asked, “Did your mother say anything about you spending the night?”

“Of course,” he said with a laugh. “She can’t keep her mouth shut about anything!”

“What did she say?”

“She asked me if I wasn’t complicating an already complicated situation. And I told her I wasn’t discussing it with her, so if she wanted to enjoy her time with Rosie she’d better drop it. And to my amazement, she did. Grandchildren, I discovered, provide amazing leverage.”

When Franci walked in the house a few hours later, she encountered one of the biggest messes she’d ever seen. Newspapers were spread over the island in the kitchen, covered with pumpkin guts. She could see the spills on the floor—seeds that had gotten away—and three pumpkins were in the middle of the carving process on the dining room table. One huge, one large and one small. The pumpkin family.

“Nuts,” Sean said. “You’re home early. We were going to surprise you. We’ve gotta have jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween!”