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This, Stella thought, hy dating was very rarely worth it In her underwear, she stood in front of her closet, debating, considering, despairing over what to wear

She didn&039;t even knohere she was going She hated not knohere she was going Hoas she supposed to knohat to prepare for?

"Dinner" was not enough information Was it little-black-dress dinner, or dressy-casual on-sale-designer-suit dinner? Was it jeans and a shirt and jacket dinner, or jeans and a silk blouse dinner?

Added to that, by picking her up at seven, he&039;d barely left her enough tie into

Dating How could so and so damn much fun in her teens, so easy and natural in her early twenties, have beco chore in her thirties?

It wasn&039;t just thattools Adult dating was co because the people involved in the stupid date had alh at least one serious relationship, and breakup, and carried that extra baggage on their backs They were already set in their ways, had defined their expectations, and had perfor ritual so often that they really just wanted to cut to the chase - or go home and watch Letterman

Add to that a man who dropped the date on your head out of the clear blue, then didn&039;t have the sense to give you souidelines so you kne to present yourself, and it was just a complete mess before it started

Fine, then Fine He&039;d just get what he got

She was stepping into the little black dress when the connecting bathroom door burst open and Gavin rushed in "Mom! I finished o do? Can I?"

She was glad she&039;d decided on the open-toed slides and no hose, as Parker was currently trying to cli?" she asked Gavin

"Nuh-uh I did all the vocabulary words"

"The knocking so and innocent "You look pretty"

"Smooth talker" She bent down to kiss the top of his head "But when a door&039;s closed, you knock"

"Okay Can I go do?"

"In a minute" She walked over to her dresser to put on the silver hoops she&039;d laid out "I want you to proood for Miss Roz"

"We&039;re going to have cheeseburgers and play video games She says she can take us in Shting with your brother" Hope springs, she thought "Consider this your night off froo-down?"

"Get" She gave hiht slap on the rump "Remember, I&039;ll have my phone if you need me"

When he rushed out, she slipped on her shoes and a thin black sweater After a check in the mirror, she decided the accessories took the dress into the could-be-casual, could-be- for

She picked up her bag and, checking the contents as she went, walked into the next bedroom Luke was sprawled belly-down on the floor - his favored position - frowning miserably over his arithmetic book

"Trouble, handsorieved in the way only a young boy could e "I hate homework"

"Me too"

"Gavin did the touchdown dance, with his fingers in the air, &039;cause he finished first"

Understanding the demoralization, she sat on the floor beside hiot"

"How come I have to knoo plus three, anyway?"

"How else would you kno ers you have on each hand?"

His brow beetled, then cleared with a delighted smile "Five!"

With the crisis averted, she helped him with the rest of the problems "There, all done That wasn&039;t so bad"

"I still hate homework"

"Maybe, but what about the touchdown dance?"

On a giggle, he leaped up and did his strut around the rooht in her little world onceto eat here? We&039;re having cheeseburgers"

"I&039;m not entirely sure You&039;ll behave for Miss Roz?"

"Uh-huh She&039;s nice Once she came out in the yard and threw the ball for Parker And she didn&039;t evendo, okay? &039;Cause I&039;ot to her feet, auto up the scatter of toys and clothes that hadn&039;t made it back onto the shelf or into the closet

She ran her fingers over some of their treasures Gavin&039;s beloved colove Luke&039;s favorite truck, and the battered bear he wasn&039;t yet ashamed to sleep with

The prickle between her shoulder blades had her stiffening Even under the light sweater her arooseflesh Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shape - a reflection, a shadow - in the mirror over the bureau

When she spun, Hayley swung around the door and into the roo up in front of the house," she began, then stopped "You okay? You look all pale"

"Fine I&039;m fine" But she pushed a not-quite-steady hand at her hair "I just thought nothing Nothing Besides pale, how do I look?" And she ain Saw only herself, with Hayleytoward her

"Two thumbs up I just love your hair"

"Easy to say when you don&039;t wake up with it everyit up, but it seeht" Hayley edged closer, tipping her head toward Stella&039;s "I did the redhead thing once Major disaster Made my skin look yellow"

"That deep, dense brown&039;s what&039;s striking on you" And look at that face, Stella thought with a tiny twist of envy Not a line on it

"Yeah, but the red&039;s so now Anyway, I&039;an busy until You wait just a few more minutes before you head down, then we&039;ll all be back in the kitchen Big burger feast"

She didn&039;t intend to make an entrance, for heaven&039;s sake But Hayley had already gone off, and she did want to check her lipstick And settle herself down

At least her nerves over this date - it was a date this time - had taken a backseat to others It hadn&039;t been Hayley&039;s reflection in the limpse had shown her the woman who&039;d stood there had blond hair

Steadier, she walked out, started down the hall Froh

"She&039;ll be right down I guess you kno toon back to the kitchen with the rest of the gang Let Stella know I&039;ll say bye from her to everyone Y&039;all have fun"

Was the girl psychic? Stella wondered Hayley had timed her exit so adroitly that as she walked down the hall, Stella hit the halfway point on the steps

And Logan&039;s attention shifted upward

Good black trousers, she noted Nice blue shirt, no tie, but with a casual sport coat over it And still he didn&039;t look quite tame

"Nice," he said

"Thanks You, too"

"Hayley said she&039;d tell everyone you were leaving You ready?"

"Sure"

She stepped out with hi "You own a car"

"This is not merely a car, and to call it such is very female"

"And to say that is very sexist Okay, if it&039;s not a car, what is it?"

"It&039;s a machine"

"I stand corrected You never said where ere going"

He opened her door "Let&039;s find out"

He drove into the city, with nize on low She kneas blues - or supposed it was, but she didn&039;t know anything about that area ofthat, casually, not only seeh the trip

She got a nutshell education on artists like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, B B King and Taj Mahal

And it occurred to her after they&039;d crossed into the city, that conversation between them never seemed to be a proble look at her "You sure you were born down here?"

"It says so on my birth certificate"

He shook his head and clinorant of the blues, you better check it again"

He took her inside a restaurant where the tables were already croith patrons and the noise level high with chatter Once they were seated, he waved the waiter away "Why don&039;t we just wait on drinks until you knohat you want to eat We&039;ll get a bottle of wine to go with it"

"All right" Since it seemed he&039;d nixed the pre-dinner conversation, she opened her menu

"They&039;re known for their catfish here Ever had it?" he asked

She lifted her gaze over the top of her menu, met his "No And whether or not that o for the chicken"

"Okay You can have soive you a saood California Chardonnay on their wine list that&039;ll go with both the fish and the bird It&039;s got a nice finish"

She set her menu down, leaned forward "Do you really know that, or are you justit up?"

"I like wine I make it a point to knohat I like"

She sat back when he led her head "What are we doing here, Logan?"

"Speaking forto have a really fine catfish dinner and a glass of good wine"

"We&039;ve had some conversations, mostly business-oriented"

"We&039;ve had sou, an enjoyable one, which ended on a surprisingly personal note"

"I do like listening to you talk son language Are you laying all those things down like pavers, trying to make some sort of path from one point to the next?"

"Maybe The fact is, I&039; here with you, on a date That wasn&039;trelationship"

"Uh-huh And speaking of that, I still find your syste of that, you neglected to put that invoice on my desk this afternoon"

"Did I?" He ot it somewhere"

"My point is - "

She broke off when the waiter brought the wine to the table, turned the label toward Logan

"That&039;s the one Let the lady taste it"

She bided her ti sip She saoodhas a nice finish"

Logan grinned "Then let&039;s get started on it"

"The point I was trying to ain, "is that while it&039;s smart and beneficial all around for you and me to develop a friendly relationship, it&039;s probably not either for us to take it to any other level"

"Uh-huh" He sa-cat eyes "You think I&039;ht not be smart or beneficial?"

"I&039;m in a new place, with a new job I&039;ve taken my kids to a new place They&039;re first with me"

"I expect they would be But I don&039;t expect this is your first dinner with a man since you lost your husband"

"I&039;uessed How&039;d he die?"

"Plane crash Commuter plane He was on his way back from a business trip I had the TV on, and there was a bulletin They didn&039;t give any naone before they ca when you heard the bulletin, what you were doing, where you were standing" His voice was quiet, his eyes were direct "You know every detail about that day"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it was the worst day of your life You&039;ll be hazy on the day before, the day after, but you&039;ll never forget a single detail of that day"

"You&039;re right" And his intuition surprised her, touched her "Have you lost someone?"

"No, not like what you mean, or how you et married, stay married, unless theyanks that center out of you, you never forget"

"No, I won&039;t" It was carved into her heart "That&039;s theexpression of syivenit comes as a surprise"

"I don&039;t insult that easy You lost their father, but you&039;ve built a life - looks like a good one - for your kids That takes work You&039;re not the first woman I&039;ve been interested in who&039;s had children I respect motherhood, and its priorities Doesn&039;t stopwhen I&039;et you naked"

She opened her ain Cleared her throat, sipped wine "Well Blunt"

"Different sort of woled half laugh, he lifted his wine And waited while their first course was served "But as it is, you&039;re a since we&039;re having this nice ether I&039;ll say you&039;re a cautious sort of woht-ass"

He grinned, appreciating her "You&039;ll never know Added to that, we both work for Roz, and I wouldn&039;t do anything to ot two kids to worry about And I don&039;t kno tender youyour husband So instead ofdinner conversation"

She took a h At the root, she couldn&039;t find anything wrong with his logic In fact, she agreed with it "All right First Roz I won&039;t do anything to ree to ht not always be courteous, but it&039;ll be about the work"

"Fair enough My boys are my priority, first and last Not only because they have to be," she added, "but because I want the did, I wouldn&039;t have much respect for you"