The car slammed its brakes and skidded sideways even as Jim half shoved, half carried the woman out of harm's way. He'd glimpsed her from a distance...and now he figured it was a damn good thing she was so stunningly beautiful, because he hadn't been able to tear his eyes away. Which was why he'd seen disaster about to strike. He was holding her with one arm under her legs, one supporting her back. Despite her height, she wasn't heavy, which was good because he had to keep moving to avoid the chain-reaction disaster unfolding around them.

The skidding car hit a lamppost and tipped it over. The lamppost hit the craft store's outdoor holiday display, bringing tangles of Christmas lights and tinsel down with it. A puppy tugged his leash from his owner's hand, raced into the mess and emerged with a length of silver garland in his teeth, growling and shaking it for all he was worth. People ran every which way. Displays and decorations were scattered over the sidewalk, and they tripped people, who fell down, tripping other people.

Jim saw it all in a single sweeping glance. And then he lowered his head to meet the eyes of the woman who was staring up at him and couldn't look anywhere else. He saw huge green eyes, wide-set and round.

"Jimmy Corona," she whispered.

He smiled at the breathless way she'd said his name and tried to place her face. It was familiar and yet not quite.

"Are you okay?" he asked, not wanting to admit he didn't know who she was. That tended to offend women. She wasn't one of the girls he'd dated in high school-or at least he didn't think so. He'd studied all those faces closely, memorized the names. He had six solid potentials he intended to visit before he left this town.

She blinked at him. "Uh...yeah. I...I'm fine."

He set her carefully on her feet, and she stood facing him, close. Very close. Something stirred in his belly. Then she seemed to realize that her arms were still locked around his neck. She lowered them, though it was the last thing in the world he wanted her to do just then.

It was about that time recognition hit him-well, not specific recognition but better than none at all. He had the genus and species down, if not the name. "You're one of the Brand girls, aren't you?" he asked. As he spoke, he put a hand on the middle of her back to guide her the rest of the way across the street, away from the chaos she'd caused, back toward where he'd left the truck parked with Tyler safe and sound in the passenger seat and Colby keeping an eye on him.

He'd heard one of the Brand sisters had made it big as a model. No wonder her looks had knocked him on his ass like that. This had to be the one. She was tall, had legs up to her neck, and that kind of confident walk-or at least she had until she'd lost her footing in the road. "Edie, right?" he asked, recalling the model's name.

"No. I'm Kara."

They stepped up onto the sidewalk, and as they did he turned to look at her. "Kara?" No way, he thought as the name wormed its way into the crevices of his mind and wrenched open the pathways to musty old memories. Kara Brand. The name brought to mind a scrawny, skinny girl who was taller than everyone and tended to slump. Who kept her eyes downcast and shuffled her feet when she walked. Who used to let her untrimmed hair fall into a thick mass of nondescript brown that always looked messy. Who always seemed to be in a terrible hurry and was constantly tripping, falling, colliding with innocent bystanders. Who had, up until the tenth grade, worn thick black-rimmed glasses so big he'd wondered if she meant to hide behind them. And her clothes had always been big, too. She had been a walking disaster. Klutzy Kara. No grace, confidence, social skill or self-esteem.

No way was this creature the shy and awkward wallflower he remembered from Big Falls High.

"Kara Brand?" he repeated.

"You probably wouldn't remember me." She smoothed her blouse. It was silk, wine-colored and brought out the vivid green of her eyes. "I was a year behind you in high school, but I-"

"I remember you. I just...don't remember you like this." He let his gaze slide down to her feet and up again, but then smacked himself upside the head with an unspoken Knock it off, caveman.

She almost looked as if she wished he didn't remember her at all. But there were other memories crowding into his mind now. Memories that made the gears in his brain start grinding and his pulse race a little faster. As he recalled, Kara Brand had been known as something of a pushover, mostly because she'd had the biggest, softest heart in the entire high school. He wondered if that had changed as drastically as the rest of her had. If not, then she was a real possibility.

He handed her the briefcase she'd dropped in the street. Several papers were sticking out the top. A couple of them fluttered to the sidewalk. He bent down to pick one up, taking a look at it as he did because he needed to look at something besides her. Man, he could barely take his eyes off her. The transformation was astounding.

"Brand-Name Day Care? That's cute."

She nodded. God, she seemed uneasy. The cop in him wondered why. "So where is this day-care center of yours?"

"It's, um...nowhere. Not yet. I just applied for a loan to get started."

"You have a place in mind?"

She licked her lips, averted her eyes and shook her head. "What brings you back to town, Jimmy?"

"Wanted to show my boy where I grew up."

"Your...you have a son?"

He nodded. "You want to meet him?"

Her smile was quick and bright. "I'd love to meet him," she said. And she meant it, he could tell.

He took her arm gently, turning her toward his pickup truck parked by the curb. Tyler sat in the passenger side with his window rolled down, waving at them as they came closer. Colby stood outside the truck, leaning against the door and talking to Ty through the rolled-down window.

Jim walked up to the truck, met Colby's speculative glance and sent him a quelling one in return. Colby stepped aside to give the space to Jim and Kara. "Tyler, I'd like you to meet Kara Brand. She and I went to high school together. Kara, this is my son, Tyler."

"Hi!" Tyler said. He gave Kara a thorough looking over, from her toes to her head. "Can you make cookies?"

Colby tried to smother a chortle and failed. Then he stuck out a hand. "Colby Benton," he said. "Just along for the hell of it."

"Good to meet you, Colby."

Jim watched her face as she turned her attention back to his son and then his gaze got stuck there. The former tension, that frown of unease, was completely gone. She was relaxed now, open, and her smile was so sweet it melted his bones.

She told his son, "Not only do I make cookies, I make the best cookies this side of heaven."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. The only person in town who can make them better is my mom."

"Chocolate-chip?" Tyler asked.

"They're my specialty. If you're going to be in town long enough, I'll make a batch just for you."

"That would be great," Tyler said, his eyes wide. "Do you have a pony?"

"No. Why?"

Tyler pursed his lips in thought, then lifted his gaze to hers. "How 'bout a dog?"

"I don't have a dog of my own, but my sister has one. And it's as big as a pony, come to think of it."

Tyler grinned. He was leaning close to the window now, his head sticking out, and Kara bent close to him. "Do you have a dog or a pony?" she asked.

"Not yet. That was cool the way my dad saved you, wasn't it?"

"It was cool," she agreed. She straightened away from the truck and turned to Jim again. "I didn't even thank you for that."

"Don't. It wasn't a big deal."

"No big deal," Tyler repeated. "My dad saves people all the time."

"Oh, does he now?" Kara's eyes sparkled with amusement. Amazing how relaxed and at ease she became as soon as she turned her focus to his son, Jim thought again.

Tyler nodded. "Uh-huh. He's a p'liceman. So's Uncle Colby."

Kara tipped her head to one side and looked at Jim as if seeing him for the first time. "Jimmy Corona, a cop. It fits."

"You think so?" he asked, and when she nodded he asked, "Why?"

She shrugged and a hint of nervousness returned to those huge eyes. She'd done something to her hair, something that made him want to touch it, to see if it was as soft and thick as it looked. It shone and bounced and seemed almost alive.

"So, um...where are you staying while you're in town?" she asked, not meeting his eyes.

"Boarding house. We checked in this morning."

"Mama would skin me if I didn't invite you to dinner," Kara said. "She and your father went way back, you know. Always stayed in touch, even after he moved away. I heard he'd passed. I'm sorry."

"He had a good life. I still miss him, though." Jim glanced at his son, wishing his father had lived to see his grandchild. Then he brushed that thought away. "To tell you the truth, it would be good to see Vidalia and catch up with the gang. How are your sisters doing?"

"Great. Edie quit modeling, came home and married Wade Armstrong. You remember him? He was a few years ahead of us in school. He owns a garage here in town and another over in Tucker Lake. They bought the big place out on the Falls Road. She opened a photography studio there."

"How about Mel? She still riding that motorcycle?"

Kara nodded. "She's married, too. Landed herself a private detective name of Alexander Stone, from the city, and became his partner. They're in and out of town all the time, depending on what they're working on. Maya, she married Caleb Montgomery."

"The senator's son?"

She nodded. "They built a place up behind Mom's. Have three-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. Caleb has a law office just around the corner." She pointed as she spoke. The wind came careening around a corner, dry and cool with a wintry nip to it, that didn't even resemble the bite of December in Chicago. It played with her hair, though, and pinkened her cheeks.

"Your mom still running the saloon?"

"Uh-huh, with help from the rest of us. Selene and I still live at the house with her."

"Wow. Unbelievable how things change. Mel settled down. Maya with twins." He shook his head.

"Dad, you said we could see the waterfall!"

Jim let his son tug his gaze away. "We're going, we're going."

"Go on," Kara said. "Dinner's around six, if that's not too early."

"It's just right," he said.

"You are welcome, too, of course," she added to Colby. "Any friend of Jimmy's..."

"Thanks. That's real sweet of you."

She nodded. "So, um, should I tell Mom to set four extra places at the table? Maybe five?"

Jim frowned, and she just looked at him with those big eyes, waiting. And he realized she was asking if he-or Colby-would be bringing a wife along. "Three, Kara. Only three."

"Oh," she said. "I thought maybe your wife..."

"I'm-we lost her four years ago."

He could have kicked himself for blurting it in a way that made it sound as if Angela had died and he knew from the daggers he was hurling with his eyes that Colby wanted to kick him for it, as well. He was damned if he knew why he'd said it that way. Except that he'd be ashamed to admit to Kara Brand and her family-a family he remembered as being as wholesome as whole milk-that his ex-wife was a drug-addicted prostitute.

"I'm sorry," she said for the second time in their five-minute conversation. But this time she put a hand on his arm, and he thought the sadness in her eyes was genuine. Especially when she glanced again at his son.

"It's okay. It's...okay."

He was a slug. Now he had her feeling sorry for them when, in fact, Angela's absence was a blessing. He needed to change the subject. "So we'll see you at six then."

"Great. You remember where to find us?"

"I remember," he said.

"Till dinner, then. Nice meeting you, Colby." She turned to the truck again. "'Bye, Tyler."

He held up his arms. Smiling, Kara leaned down and accepted the hug his little boy offered. Jim was close enough to see her notice the braces on Tyler's legs. He saw her frown at them and then hug Ty a little tighter.

"'Bye, Kara."

She straightened, sent Jim a parting smile, then turned and started down the sidewalk. Jim leaned back against the passenger door of the pickup and watched her go. Damn. Who'd have believed little Kara Brand would turn out like that?

She hadn't gone ten steps when Tyler spoke in a very loud, slightly squeaky voice. "She's pretty, Dad. And she smells good and she can make cookies. She doesn't have a pony, but...well, that's okay. Can she be my new mom?"

He knew Kara had overhead because she tripped, careened sideways and just barely caught herself on the side of someone's car. Her touch set off a noisy car alarm.

She straightened, smoothed her pants and never looked back as she walked the rest of the way to her car.

"Not that one, Jim," Colby said softly, talking to him alone in a voice not meant to carry to Ty. "Not that one, okay? She's too nice."

Jim shook his head. "No such thing as too nice."

"Come on, Jim, you can't. I got a bad feeling about this."

Jim shrugged, clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We should bring something to dinner. It's good manners."

"What happened?" Selene asked the second Kara sank onto a bar stool at the OK Corral.

Kara looked down at herself in search of any evidence of the shock she'd just had. "What do you mean?" she asked. "What makes you think something happened?"

"I don't think it, I know it. Something big, too. Your aura's practically shooting off sparks. Did the bank turn you down?"

"Give the girl a chance to breathe, for heaven's sake," Vidalia said. But her eyes were raking Kara as if she saw something too.

"Could I have a drink?" Kara asked.

Vi blinked and shot a look at Selene, who only smiled knowingly as she grabbed a peach wine cooler for Kara, twisted off the cap and set it on a coaster in front of her.

"It's not even noon yet," Vidalia muttered. "And you never drink. What's going on? If that banker thinks she can brush you off and-"

"The banker was fine, Mom. I won't have an answer until the end of the day or so, but she thinks my application will be approved without a problem."

"Then what's going on?"