"Sure. You could, too. It just takes practice." She looked him in the eye. "Did I get all the sore spots?"

He nodded.

"Feel any better?"

"Yeah." He moved his leg a little. "Hey, that magic stone really works."

"Sure it does. Let's do the other leg now."

"Okay."

The door opened and Jim came in, pizza boxes stacked in his arms. His eyes, when they met Kara's, were warm and kind. Then they slid to where his son sat on the floor, braces off, Selene working over him, and they turned curious.

"It's okay," Kara said, moving close to him and keeping her voice low. "He said his legs were hurting him. Selene's into...all sorts of alternative healing."

He lifted his brows. "What exactly is she doing?"

"Near as I can tell, running a magic rock over his legs and chanting nursery rhymes. Hell, I figured it couldn't hurt."

He lifted his brows, tipped his head to one side.

"It's an old powwow technique," Selene called without looking up from her work. She couldn't have heard them talking, but as usual Selene knew things she shouldn't.

Ty looked up. "Hi, Dad!"

"Hi, kiddo. What do you think? Is it working?"

"It really is! That magic stone is for real!"

He smiled and Kara read his face. He was thinking what anyone would-that the improvement was all in his son's head and that pain relief was as much psychological as physical.

"I know what you're thinking," she told him. "Placebo effect."

He shrugged.

"A few years ago I might have agreed with you, but not now. I've seen too much. Selene-she has something."

"I believe you. To tell you the truth, I don't care what it is. I'm all for anything that makes him feel better."

"That's good," Selene called. "'Cause I have a few suggestions I want to run by you. But we'll save those for another time."

From the back Vidalia called, "I smell pizza!"

Then she and Maya came out, Maya wiping her hands on a dish towel, Vi heading straight for a table to begin taking the upturned chairs off it. Jim carried the boxes to the table and set them in the center. Then Selene came over, carrying Tyler in her arms.

Ty sent his father a look and said, "I should put my braces back on."

"Oh, it can wait until after pizza," Selene said. "Can't it, Jim?"

Jim nodded. "Sure. A few minutes longer won't hurt."

Selene put Tyler in a chair, and the twins clambered up into the seats on either side of him. Kara went behind the bar to retrieve paper plates and napkins, then turned to find Jim standing behind her.

"Any problems?"

"Not a one," she said. "Ty's a doll."

"Yeah, he's a con man, too. I can see he's got the whole crew eating out of his hand."

"Hey, he did that his first day in town."

He smiled at her as if he meant it. "And how did your morning go?"

"Fine. Enjoyed it immensely. How about you? How did your morning go?"

"Terrible," he said.

She had opened the cooler to take out soft drinks, but she paused there. "Why? What happened?"

He lifted a hand to her face, caught a wisp of hair between his fingers and smoothed it slowly. "I missed you."

She felt the blood rush to her face. "Jimmy, be serious."

"I am serious." He held her eyes for a long moment, until she turned away, unable to bear the intensity in them. "Other than that, it wasn't too bad," he went on. "But I'll tell you more about that tonight." He reached past her to grab colas from the cooler and carried them back with him to the table.

Kara joined him there and tried to eat. The man was sweeping her off her feet, and she had no doubt it was exactly what he intended.

"Hey, you guys having pizza without us?"

Everyone looked up at the shout from the doorway. Mel stood there, arm in arm with Alex. Kara hadn't seen her sister in weeks and she jumped up and ran to hug her hard.

"Oh, Mel, it's so good to see you!"

Mel hugged her back. "Same here, kid." Mel moved to the table to hug her mother and each sister in turn, then she turned to stare down at Jim. "You haven't changed much," she said.

"More than you would even believe," he replied, rising. "Hello, Melusine."

"Jim, this is my husband, Alex Stone. Alex, this is Jimmy Corona, former high school hunk and current cop with the Chicago PD."

"Not exactly current," he said, turning to shake Alex's hand.

"No? What, you turn in your badge or something?"

"I'm on leave. Thinking about making it permanent."

Kara blinked up at him, her questions in her eyes. Jim sighed. "I was going to tell you later, Kara. I spoke to Chief Wheatly this morning. I told him to hold that job for me. I'm planning to take it."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Jim, I...I...this is awfully sudden. I mean, shouldn't you give it some time before making such a drastic decision?"

"The decision is made."

He was serious. About her. About them. He wasn't playing around. Suddenly everything turned upside down. Her head spun.

"I...excuse me, I need to-" She got to her feet but knocked the chair over in the process. Then she hurried to the ladies' room.

Kara leaned on the sink and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were wider than normal, her face perhaps a little pinker.

The bathroom door swung open, and she looked without turning, using the mirror to ascertain whether Jimmy Corona had followed her in.

He hadn't. It was Mel. She stood just inside the doorway, hands on her hips. "So you want me to kick his ass or what?"

"Right. The first guy to look more than twice in my direction since I don't know when, and all I want is for my big sis to chase him away."

Mel lifted her brows. "You're exaggerating. Lots of guys have looked in your direction."

She rolled her eyes. "Until they get hurt, at least."

"You're not a klutz anymore, Kara. Stop thinking like one."

Kara sighed. "I used to think I was something of a jinx, too. Guys who got involved with me always met with some kind of minor disaster."

"That was all in your head."

"I hope so."

Mel came closer, nodding slowly. "So you want this thing to work out then?"

"Yeah. I do. It's just...hard to believe it's real."

"Maybe for you it is." Mel put a hand on her sister's shoulder, holding her gaze in the mirror. "I gotta tell you, sis, it's not all that surprising to anyone else."

"Isn't it?"

Mel shook her head. "Why would it be? You're gorgeous, smart, single, hardworking, kind. What's been tough for us to swallow is that men haven't been swarming the place trying to steal you away from us for years now."

Kara made a face, knowing full well why. She'd been clumsy, self-conscious, shy, hiding inside a shell where she felt safe from the world.

"Jimmy probably thinks I've lost it."

Mel smiled. "He wanted to come in after you. I asked him to let me do it. Told him we had a lot of catching up to do anyway."

Kara nodded. "He'll come in before long if I don't come out. Probably thinks he did something wrong."

"You think?" Mel looked toward the door. "So what's up with him anyway?"

"I wish I knew." Kara turned and leaned back against the sink, facing her sister full-on. "He shows up back in town and starts paying attention to me."

"Normal behavior."

"He seems to be getting awfully serious awfully fast."

"And that's a problem because...?"

Kara thought about that for a long moment and couldn't come up with an answer. Then the door opened again and the man himself stood there. "My turn yet?" he asked.

Kara drew a breath, squared her shoulders, faced him and nodded. Mel sent her a questioning look, but she said, "It's okay, Mel. Give us a minute."

"All right."

Mel left the room, patting Jimmy's shoulder on the way out as if to offer encouragement. Kara pushed off the sink and walked to where he stood. She expected him to talk to her, to ask her what he'd said wrong, to question whether she was all right. But he didn't do any of those things. Instead he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her tight to him, lowered his head and took her mouth as if he'd been starving for it.

Everything inside her turned molten. Her nervousness, her questions, everything just burned away at his touch, his taste. Nothing remained but sensation, desire, a wanting and yearning she had never felt before. Knots tied themselves in her stomach while butterflies rioted in her chest. She was breathless, and overwhelmed. He held her tighter than he ever had, and his hips nudged hers in a way they hadn't done before, harder, insistent.

When he lifted his head away, her legs were shaking so hard she didn't think they would hold her. His arms around her loosened and she whispered, "Don't let go, Jimmy. If you do, I might fall."

She glimpsed a relieved smile just before he folded her into his arms. He held her gently, as if she were something cherished and fragile. "I'll never let you go if you don't want me to."

"Really? And we'll just live out our lives in a ladies' room?"

He laughed softly. It rumbled in his chest, beneath her head. "I've been dying to kiss you all day. Sorry I let it get the best of me." His hand stroked her hair. "You okay?"

"Okay? I wouldn't exactly describe it as okay, no. I'm..." She lifted her head, met his eyes, then lowered hers quickly.

"Turned on?" he asked. He caught her face in his hands and tipped it up so he could meet her eyes. "Don't be embarrassed, Kara. God, I need to hear that you want me as badly as I want you."

Her self-consciousness was quickly replaced by amazement. "I...I do," she admitted. "But it's new to me, Jimmy. I'm not...I mean, I've never..."

He blinked three times and then his face changed. He didn't release her, but she sensed him pulling back in some other way. "Kara?" When his prompting didn't result in a reply, he went on. "Kara, you have...you've been with other men, right? That's not what you meant just now."

She forced herself to look him in the eye. "I'm a virgin, Jimmy."

He only stared at her, shaking his head slowly.

She frowned, wondering why he was reacting the way he was. "That doesn't mean I don't want to. I mean, I do." She paused, then said, "You're disappointed." No doubt he was used to experienced women. She'd probably be terrible in bed, nowhere near able to satisfy a man like him.

"Disappointed?" He seemed to shake out of his state of wonder and he folded her into his arms once more. "No, Kara. Feeling a little guilty, wondering why your family hasn't run me out of town for the impure thoughts I've been having about you. Hell, if they knew, they probably would."

"Don't feel guilty. I've been having the same thoughts."

"Oh, I seriously doubt that." There was heat in his eyes as they skimmed her head to toe. "Mine are pretty detailed."

She tried not to blush, felt her face heating anyway and kept her eyes averted as she whispered, "Would you...tell me about them?"

He groaned softly, drawing her gaze up to his eyes. "I will. But not here, not with your family right outside. Hell, if I start going there with you now, I'll have you stripped bare and bent over that sink before you even know what happened."

She caught her breath because she saw the image he painted very clearly in her mind. It was so visceral, so raw, so unlike anything she'd ever considered or thought about.

He was searching her face, reading her eyes, she was sure of it. Then he gripped her hips and turned her away from him. He slid his hands up to her shoulders, then down her outer arms until his hands covered hers, and he guided them to the sides of the sink. Then he returned his grip to her hips to pull her a few steps backward. She let him, keeping her hands where he'd put them, knowing what he was doing. In a moment she was bending over, her hands on the sink, her buttocks snugged tight against his crotch. He bent over her, wrapping his arms around her so tight she could barely move. One hand slid lower, moving over her abdomen, over her jeans, which she suddenly wished would vaporize. He traced a path between her legs while his other hand fondled a breast. Then he pushed against her from behind, and a little whimper escaped her.