He nodded toward lugsb7. "While he was gone, he found himself a lady and they had baby raccoons."

She burst out laughing. "He did?"

"Start thinking of names."

"I like the fact you encourage the silliness."

"It's called smart family management. The O'Malleys unoccupied just come up with trouble."

"Good try, but you're really still a kid at heart."

"Maybe true too."

She set down the raccoon, looked over at him, smiled, and came around to a subject she had meant to mention to him. "You know, I realized something the other day when I was sorting out what was in my purse." "What's that?"

"I still have the slip of paper with the pager numbers you asked me to memorize. I never had reason to page you with my private code."

"You will in the future," Marcus noted, watching her.

"I think I'll have to. I noticed something about the private code you assigned me."

"Did you?"

"I should have noticed it before..."

He slowly smiled. "Yes, you should have."

"225-6469 spells CAL-MINX."

"Well, what do you know..." He laughed at her expression.

"I only saw it because I was bored and was doodling. You weren't going to tell me, were you?"

"Nope."

"You're terrible."

"I love you too."

They shared a smile. Shari tilted her head to one side, considering him. "I'll need a private code for you, for when I want you to call me back immediately..."

"Why do I get the feeling you thought of one?"

She had a hard time containing herjo7. "484-8463."

He pulled out his phone, looked at the keypad, putting letters to the numbers. He laughed softly as he figured it out. "Minx, I like the way you think."

"Not too subtle?"

"I'll remember it," Marcus promised.

"Can you use the phone while we're flying?"

"Briefly."

She unclipped her pager from her belt to see the display. "Page me."

He smiled at her as he dialed. "Just wait until we get on the ground, Shari."

The numbers flashed on the pager.

HUG TIME.

The publisher and author would love to hear your.

comments about this book. Please contact us.

www. multnomah, net/theguardian.

end.