"She doesn't exactly keep me on speed dial." Jessie's sister, Josie, had inherited her father's wanderlust. After years spent waiting for Billy to get off the road, her mother had finally divorced him the year Jessie turned twelve. The sad thing was, it hadn't affected Jessie's life because Billy hadn't been around much anyway.

But it'd affected Josie. Josie had romanticized her father and his lifestyle, so she took off right after she'd turned eighteen. It'd been a hard blow to their mother, and for that Jessie resented her younger sister. Any close relationship they shared vanished when Josie did.

"I talked to her last month," her mom said. "She's working at a restaurant in Dallas."

No big stunner Josie was in cowboy country in Texas. Jessie couldn't muster interest in Josie's latest escapade and refused to pretend. She also refused to mention to her mother she'd seen Billy because she doubted she could be civil about him, either.

She wandered into the kitchen and snatched an oatmeal raisin cookie. Her eyes nearly bugged out at the three different kinds of pie, and cinnamon rolls, and brownies, and two different types of cookies-all homemade-that crowded the countertop.

"You want milk with that?"

Milk. Right. Jessie smiled. "Nope. I'd rather have a beer." She helped herself to one from the fridge. "Do you have time to sit down? Or are you still whipping up food for tomorrow?"

"I'm mostly done. Gotta get up and put the turkey in, glaze the hamballs and peel the potatoes, but I figured you could help me."

"Sure thing. How many people are you feeding?" She took a long pull off the Corona.

"Eight. Our friends Barb and Tim, our empty nest neighbors Rich and his wife Dawn, and Roger's new teaching assistant, Jake."

Jessie slowly lowered the bottle. "Mom. Please tell me you're not trying to fix me up with this Jake guy."

Her mother grabbed a dishrag and wiped cookie crumbs from the counter. "Not a fix up. But Jake is a really great guy. He's single, so are you. You're around the same age, I thought it'd be good for you to have someone show you around while you're here."

Regardless of what her mom claimed, this was a fix up. Although she and Brandt were exclusive while they were living together, this thing, whatever it was, was temporary.

You don't really believe that. There's more going on between you and Brandt than just hot sex. This thing could be the start of something big.

But her cynical side reminded her that there already was something very big between her and Brandt, something insurmountable: Landon's future.

"Jessie?" her mother prompted. "I see the wheels turning. What's going on?"

"Besides the fact I'm currently helping my former brother-in-law take care of my dead husband's secret love child from a jailbait jailbird? Oh, and just to make it even more interesting, I'm now sleeping with said brother in law."

After her mom picked her jaw up off the floor, she pointed to a dining room chair. "Sit and start talking. I'll get more beer."

Jessie knew her mother intended to grill her when she ditched her apron, embroidered with a big "L" for Lisa. Removal of the apron indicated the shift in parental roles from cookie and comfort giver to interrogator. She sipped her beer and waited for the barrage of questions.

It didn't take long.

"Did you end up in this situation with Brandt out of guilt?" Her mother raised her hand when Jessie began to object. "I know you're in the situation with Landon out of some obligation you feel to Luke."

Jessie ran her thumb along the edge of the sandstone coaster as she tried to figure out a way to explain it, when half the time she didn't understand it herself. "Being in such close quarters with Brandt felt different from the start. That everyday familiarity between us built pretty damn fast and in some ways, it was more intimate than sex. I missed that physical closeness, and since we were already acting like a married couple, I told him I wanted all of the benefits of being married."

"So you approached him?" her mother asked.

"Yes." Jessie swallowed a mouthful of beer. "Hard to believe, huh?"

"I'm happy you did. At least you're getting something you want out of this lousy situation. How you're able to handle..." She shook her head. "I don't know what I would've done if one of Billy's floozies would've shown up with a kid he'd fathered."

Her mom hadn't spoken of Billy's infidelities, but Jessie knew it'd been another reason she'd ended the marriage. Before she could answer, her mother laughed.

"See, I say that, but I probably would've done the exact same thing you did, Jessie."

"What? Caved in?"

"No." She leaned back in her chair. "In some ways hearing about Landon's mother reminded me...well, kinda like deja vu."

"How so?"

"One day when you were about sixteen months, I was at my wit's end, with you, with my job, and this neighbor lady volunteered to take care of you for a couple of hours while I got control. At first I thought it was weird, but she told me someone helped her out when she was a young mother and she was just returning the favor. Her kindness over the next few months really changed a lot for me. For us."

Jessie was floored. "How come I never knew any of this?"

"Honestly? Because I'd forgotten about it. So many other things happened over the years. It came back to me when you said you were helping out with Luke's kid. So no, you're not a doormat, Jessie. No matter what Luke led you to believe."

She killed her beer. "Luke and I were headed for a divorce anyway."

"I know."

"I loved him. I'da done anything, let him get away with anything, been anyone he wanted me to be, just to keep him."

"I know that too, sweetie."

She held her fingers to her eyes to stem the tears. "God, Mom. I've had time to think, a lot, too much time probably, but one of the hardest parts of losing Luke was figuring out I'd lost myself too. I let him define me. And when he wasn't around to tell me who to be, I didn't know who the hell I was."

Silence fell and Jessie welcomed it.

Her mother cleared her throat. "And what about Brandt McKay? Are you letting him define you?"

Jessie shook her head. "Which might seem at odds with agreeing to help him take care of Landon. I'm not doing it for Brandt. I'm not even doing it for Luke. I'm doing it for that little boy, no matter if Landon ever knows it, no matter how hard it is. He needs me. I've already got a lot of regrets where Luke is concerned and I won't let ignoring this helpless kid be another one."

"Will you be able to let Landon go when the time comes?"

I don't know.

The door in the living room opened and Lexie started barking. Jessie grabbed her collar and issued a terse, "Stay."

"Lisa?"

"In the kitchen with Jessie, Roger."

Roger came through the door in stocking feet. Before he acknowledged Jessie, he gave her mother a kiss on the lips. More than a peck, less than dueling tongues, but a kiss filled with warmth and affection.

"Hey, you." Her mom smiled up at him, happiness shining in her smile and her eyes. Jessie fought those stupid tears again because if anyone deserved a man who adored her, it was her mother.

Roger kissed her one more time. "Hey yourself." Then he remembered Jessie was in the room. He adjusted his glasses. "Jessie. Nice to see you. I hope the roads were all right?"

"They were fine."

Roger crouched down to pet Lexie, giving Jessie an opportunity to study him. He definitely looked like an accounting teacher with his white button up shirt, plaid cardigan, and khaki pants. Beneath his thick glasses were kind brown eyes, which were another indication of his gentle demeanor.

"Would you like a glass of wine?" her mother asked him.

"No, thanks. I'll let you get back to girl talk."

Jessie stood. "Actually, I think I'll head to bed."

"I didn't mean to chase you off, Jessie," Roger said.

"You didn't." She swiped her mother's half-full bottle of beer. "Besides, I think Mom would like that glass of wine."

"I put your stuff in your usual room."

"Thanks. Goodnight."

"See you in the morning, sweetie."

Jessie wandered into the bedroom. The first time she'd come to her mother's home after Luke had died, she'd taken one look at the twin bed-a blatant reminder of her single status-and she'd slid to the floor, weeping.

No urge to weep arose this time, but she had gotten used to sleeping with Brandt in the last few weeks, wrapping herself around his warm body after they'd made love and before they drifted off. She'd really gotten used to his unique way of waking her up.

She slipped on her pajamas. Lexie preferred tile to carpet, so she curled up on the floor in the adjoining bathroom.

Jessie slid beneath the sweet-smelling sheets and brought the down comforter under her chin. She turned on her side to get comfortable, squinting at the red numbers on the clock on the bedside table. Eleven. Was Brandt tucked in bed? Or had he fallen asleep in front of the TV?

Ten minutes ticked away. Then twenty. She heard her mom and Roger moving down the hallway, followed by the click of their bedroom door closing.

Another fifteen minutes passed. Almost midnight. She should be tired. But she was wide-awake.

Her cell phone vibrated on the nightstand. Jessie snatched it and smiled at the caller ID: "Hey. Is everything all right?"

"Yeah." Brandt cleared his throat. "Didn't mean to scare ya, I just called because I...missed you."

Her heart did a little flip. How sweet that he didn't think anything of calling her up just to tell her he missed her.

"Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't. I was just laying here staring at the ceiling, to be honest. Did you get my text?"

"Oh, was that what the 'I'm here' meant? That you'd arrived safe and sound in Riverton?"

"Sorry."

"How's your mom?"

"Good. She's been baking and cooking all day. She's invited a few people over for dinner tomorrow."

"Anyone you know?"

Was she supposed to tell him about the single guy her mom had invited? No. Especially when she hadn't met the man yet. Not that Brandt would be jealous...would he?

Jessie had the perverse impulse to tell Brandt about her blind dinner date, just to see how he'd react.

High schoolish, Jessie.

"Jess?"

"What? Oh sorry, no, I won't know anyone."

"Well, I'm hopin' all her dinner guests are old couples and that she isn't tryin' to fix her single, hot daughter up with some guy."

Gulp.

"You're such a flatterer, Brandt McKay. Hot daughter. Right."

"You are hot. Smokin' hot," he whispered huskily. "And if you were here, I'd prove just how hot I think you are."

She rolled flat on her back and adjusted the phone. "How would you do that?"

"I'd kiss you. And once I had your focus totally on those long, wet kisses that make you whimper, I'd start to unbutton your pajama top." He paused. "You are wearin' them long john ones you're so crazy about, aren't you?"

"Yes. Why? Would you rather I wore something sexier to bed?"

Brandt growled. "What's sexy is what's under whatever you're wearin', which is why I can't wait to peel it off you."

"Mmm. Keep going, cowboy. Then what would you do?"

"Once I had that shirt hangin' open, I'd drag my palms down your chest until I had your breasts cupped in my hands. I'd brush my thumbs across your nipples until they were tight points. Then I'd put my mouth on them. Just my lips. I'd nibble. Tease with those butterfly flicks that make you arch your back and moan. I might use my teeth. Test that edge of pain. I might get the tips wet and blow just to see hard I can get 'em. While my mouth was workin' you, my hands would be strokin' that soft curve where your heart is racing. By that time you'll be begging, grinding against me so I'd suck your nipple until I had the whole thing in my mouth."

This was actually getting her worked up.

"I heard that catch in your breath, Jessie. Is this turnin' you on?"

"Yes."

"Touch yourself. Close your eyes and do everything I tell you. Imagine my hands, my breath, my mouth on you."

Her answering, "Okay," came out in a breathy whisper.

Brandt made that low-pitched growl again. "Pinch your nipple."

Jessie switched the phone to her left hand and used the fingers on her right hand to twirl her right nipple into a tight peak.

"Is it hard?"

"Yes."

"Put your fingers in your mouth. Get them wet. Now twist the tips just to that edge of pain."