Kara sighed and took a big gulp from the bottle. The bar was empty. They didn't open for business until seven on weeknights. She loved the Corral when it was empty like this. It was such a wide, big space, with as much wood as a small forest. Polished red oak floors. Gleaming mahogany bar. Door made from a single slab of redwood. The round tables and ladder-back chairs were tiger maple, and the trim around the ceiling and windows was pine. She loved the blending of colors, the scents. She loved the giant wagon-wheel light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.

Setting the bottle down on a coaster, she kept her gaze on it and said, "Jimmy Corona's back in town."

"Uh-oh," Vi said. "Does he know you're planning to buy his father's house?"

"No."

"You think he might intend to get the place back himself, child?"

Kara shook her head. "I don't think so. He said he came to show his son where he grew up. I didn't get the feeling he was planning to stay."

"He has a son?" Selene asked. "Damn, that implies a wife, huh?"

"No. No, he's alone. Just him and his son. The kid's adorable. I just wanted to hug the stuffing out of him."

"You'd best tell the man what your plans are, Kara. It's best to be up front with people right from the start. Don't go behind his back the way your sister Edie did with her Wade. Why, they started out so far off track I'm surprised they got back on." She frowned at her daughter. "You look all out of sorts, girl. What did that man say to you?"

"Nothing. It's just..." Kara heaved a sigh. "I just caught a glimpse of him and it was like everything Edie taught me evaporated. I was tripping over my feet and babbling like an idiot and blushing." She rolled her eyes and took another sip of the wine cooler.

Vidalia looked at Selene, her eyebrows raised. Selene said, "You had a little crush on him in high school, didn't you?"

"God, no." It was a lie and she thought her sister probably knew it. "He was way out of my league. Most popular guy in school, don't you remember? Star quarterback, top scorer on the basketball team. Such an athletic guy, nothing but strength and grace. I always felt even clumsier than usual around him."

"But you're not clumsy, Kara."

Kara pressed her lips tight. "Not until I get nervous. Then I'm a walking insurance claim."

"So he makes you nervous. Why do you think that is?"

"Don't start with the pseudopsychology, Selene." Kara took another drink from her bottle.

"Well, is he still good-looking?" her meddling sister asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"Better than ever," Kara whispered, then she bit her lip and wondered why she hadn't censored herself.

"What's he do for a living?"

"He's a cop." She got all tight in the pit of her belly when she said it. Why did knowing he was a police officer make him even more attractive to her? "I'm not sure where."

"Chicago," Vidalia said. "At least that's where he was the last time I spoke to his father, God rest his soul."

Might as well have been the moon, as far as Kara was concerned. "I invited him to dinner tonight. He's got a friend along, another cop named Colby...something. Seems like a nice enough guy."

"Good girl," Vidalia said. "And dinner will be as good a time as any to tell him your plans for his house." Then she sighed. "It'll be nice to see the boy again."

He was hardly a boy, Kara thought. He was all man. And she was probably going to spill something on him or dump soup into his lap at dinner.

The boarding house was not ideal for Tyler. The rooms were all upstairs, and Tyler detested being carried. But with the braces and the crutches, doing it himself was as risky as it was frustrating and time-consuming.

He convinced Ty that piggyback rides up and down the stairs were a lot of fun, but after the third trip the novelty of that wore off fast. Poor kid.

Clever kid, too.

He'd just about melted Kara Brand's heart with that hug he'd doled out this morning. And Jim knew his son too well to think it hadn't been deliberate.

Colby sat beside him. Tyler was having a snack and watching TV, and the two adults were out of his earshot, on the far side of the living area of their three-room suite at the only boarding house in town.

Jim had been avoiding Colby's questions all afternoon, but he knew he'd run out of time. Colby was his best friend and he knew him far too well.

"So what's the story on this Kara Brand?" he asked.

Jim sighed and knew there was no getting around it. "I've been thinking about that all day. Hell, C.B., you wouldn't believe how much she's changed. At least on the surface. Wait, I'll show you." He went to the bedroom he would be sharing with Ty and got the yearbook he'd brought along, flipped it open to the page that showed Kara Brand and brought it back to shove it into Colby's hands.

Colby looked at the awkward-looking skinny girl in the photo. "No way is that the same girl."

"It is," Jim assured him. "I just hope the changes are only skin-deep."

"Why's that?"

He sighed as he sank into his seat, took the yearbook back and looked down at the ugly duckling who'd grown into a swan. "Because she had a heart as soft as a chocolate bar in the sun."

"Did she?"

Jim nodded, his eyes on the face in the photo, seeing now things he'd missed as a shallow high school jock. The Audrey Hepburn cheekbones, the delicate jaw and perfect nose. The wide set of her eyes and their exotic shape, thick lashes. So much natural beauty, but she'd kept it to herself.

"Whatever kid was having the worst time of it, that would be the one you'd see at her side. She'd latch on to them and protect them like a mother hen. Foster kids moving in and out of our district. Or kids whose parents were going through a divorce. Or kids so poor they came to school in secondhand clothes that didn't quite fit. Handicapped kids, too."

"The outcasts," Colby observed with a nod.

"Yeah. She had this tendency to...I don't know...take care of people."

"I know the type. Rarely meet one, though."

"Yeah." Jim smiled, remembering. "She even tried to take care of me once."

"Since when were you an outcast?" Colby asked.

"Just once. Championship basketball game, tie score, seconds left on the clock. I had the ball and a choice to make-pass it to the benchwarmer who was wide open and standing under the basket or take a hot-dog shot from half court."

"What did you do?"

"I took the shot. Missed it. Blew the game." He lowered his head, shaking it slowly. "No one spoke to me after that game. The kids who usually flocked around me like groupies scattered. Teammates took off, cheerleaders. Even the coach. When I came out of the locker room, there was no one there. No one but Kara, who managed to overcome her shyness-no small feat-and come up to me and tell me nobody could be perfect all the time."

"That was sweet of her. 'Course, you already knew that."

"Yeah. What I didn't know was that the kid, the benchwarmer-damn, I wish I could remember his name-he was one of her causes. Poor kid, no confidence, no friends. Coach only put him in because the other three replacements fouled out. Anyway, Kara told me he was standing there under that basket while the clock ticked down, praying I wouldn't pass to him."

"No kidding?" Colby asked, eyes a little wider.

"No kidding. She said he was scared to death. That if he'd taken that shot and missed, he'd have never lived it down. But because I did it, it would be forgiven and forgotten within a few days."

"Was she right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I was back to being the most popular guy in school within a couple of days. And Kara faded back into the woodwork."

"So my gut feeling was right," Colby said. "She's too nice for you to play the way you're thinking of playing her."

"Playing her, hell. If she's the same girl she was back then, I'm not gonna play her at all. I'm gonna marry her."

Chapter 3.

"You know I'd do anything for you, Vinnie." Angela stood looking down at him, the man who was going to change her life, make it perfect. For so long she'd thought nothing ever could.

He sat in a leather chair in his office, wearing an expensive suit, the jacket unbuttoned. "So you say," he told her. "I don't believe anything without proof."

Sighing, she pushed her hair behind her ears, hiked up her short skirt, dropped to her knees in front of him and did what he liked. His office door was open, his employees passing back and forth. She wasn't allowed to close it when she gave him head. He enjoyed people watching them.

"That's not what I meant, Angela," he said. But when she lifted her head, he grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her down again. "I didn't say to stop. Just listen."

She listened.

He let his grip in her hair ease but kept both hands on the back of her head. "I told you what I needed you to do. I told you Corona's testimony could destroy me. But you didn't convince him to back down, did you."

She opened her mouth to tell him she had tried, but he jerked her head forward so hard she almost choked. That was all right, though. He liked it when she choked.

Someone walked by. "Look at the little whore go," he said.

"She loves it," Vinnie said, holding her head, driving himself into her throat until she gagged. "You want next?"

"Damn straight."

"Come back in five."

Footsteps moved away. Vinnie pumped into her until he was finished. Then he shoved her away and zipped up his pants. "That's not gonna cut it, babe."

"Vinnie, I tried. I swear, I tried. He just wouldn't listen. And now he's left town."

"Then you're gonna figure out where he is," he told her. "You're gonna prove your loyalty to me, because I won't marry a woman who's disloyal. You understand?"

Lifting her gaze to his eyes, she nodded. He'd promised her so much. A good life. A big, fancy house. Cars. Clothes. Money.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag full of white powder. Angela reached for it, but he snatched it away.

"You'll do anything for me?"

"You know I will. I have-"

He looked past her, and she turned her head to see the other man-she thought his name was Tom but wasn't sure. He was smiling and unzipping his pants.

"For the camera this time, baby. If you really love me." She lowered her eyes, but he shook the baggie. "And then you get a reward, hmm? And after that you help me track down this ex-husband of yours and you get an even bigger one. Okay?"

"Okay, Vinnie. Okay." She moved, still kneeling, to the man who stood waiting with his member at half-mast in his hand. Vinnie took out the small camcorder and smiled down at her. "Action."

It broke Kara's heart when she saw little Tyler making his way across the front porch with metal braces on both his legs, leaning on odd-looking crutches that snapped around his arms for support.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Maya standing beside her, looking at her. "He's gorgeous."

"Yeah," Edie agreed, shouldering up to the kitchen window. "And his kid's cute, too."

Maya tried to scowl at her but wound up laughing. Then Vi shot the three of them a quelling look and opened the door.

"Welcome, gentlemen," she said.

"Mrs. Brand," Jim said. "It's great to see you again."

"Don't you 'Mrs. Brand' me, boy. It's Vidalia. Now get in here and greet me like you mean it."

Grinning, Jim stepped inside and wrapped Vi in a bear hug.

Edie elbowed Kara. "Look at this. The woman's shameless."

"You blame her?" Maya asked.

A throat cleared, and Kara looked up to see Colby. He was standing by Caleb and Wade, who each had a twin on his hip.

"Vidalia Brand, meet my good friend, Colby Benton," Jim said.

Vidalia took Colby's hand in a fervent grip. "Any friend of Jimmy's is welcome here."

"Thank you, Mrs. Brand. It's a pleasure."

"Please-Vidalia." She released his hand, then bent down to eye level with the little boy. "And you must be Tyler. Hello, there, young man. You can call me Gramma Vi, if that's okay with your dad."

Tyler tipped his head to one side. "Can you make cookies?"

"Cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts-oh, you don't even know the half. You come on in here and I'll see if I can't find you a sample, all right?"

"Okay." He made his way through the kitchen, followed by the twins.

"Tyler," Kara said, peeling herself away from her sisters. "This is Dahlia. And this Cal."