The electricity was back. The roof was fixed. The second floor’s ceiling was whole again, and Elsie had been moved up to the third. Everything was back to normal. Nice and quiet. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. It should have been a wonderful day to practice, Kate thought, but she couldn’t get into it.

Impossible as it seemed, she missed the noise and the activity. She missed Mark and Shania. And she felt deprived, sitting in her kitchen with her face to a wall. Not to mention the ultimate distraction. David Dodd. He practically haunted her. Sleep was impossible; her instant coffee was tasteless and unsatisfying; she couldn’t get within three feet of a gearshift without getting a rush, and the clock was inexorably ticking its way to her football lesson.

She sighed and leaned on her cello. She should never have agreed to the football lesson. She was going to make a fool of herself. Worse than that, it was time spent with the Enemy. David Dodd inspired sloth and indulgence. He was a bad influence. And he was so darn tempting!

She gave a snort of disgust, grabbed her cello by the neck, and dragged her chair into the living room so she could sit beside the window. She was doing this because of the sun, she told herself. The light was better for reading music. It was not because she could see the street from her perch. After all, she had self-discipline.

While she was rearranging the music, a small bird in the dogwood tree distracted her. The bird was nutshell brown with a perky black cap and black bib. It twitched its tail and chirped and cocked its head at Kate, looking right at her with its bright black eye. Kate stood immobile, not wanting to frighten the bird away, and suddenly she had an exciting idea. She could hang a bird feeder on her dogwood, then she’d be able to sit at the window and watch the birds…

She hit her forehead with her fist. What a dunce! She was supposed to be practicing. A bird feeder was exactly what she didn’t need. “Watch the birds!” She groaned out loud and slouched in her chair. She was going down the drain, no doubt about it. And it was all Dave’s fault. She hadn’t been distracted by birds before he moved next door.

When she heard his front door slam, she knew it was the moment she’d been waiting for all day. Okay, so she admitted it. He was a bum, but she was dying to see him. That morning she’d shaved her legs, put on her best undies, and splashed perfume on her pulse points… just in case. Not that she was counting on anything. In fact, she was determined not to have anything happen. But just in case…