Dave took a deep breath and willed himself to concentrate on the fruit basket. The thought of Kate married to this pompous, egocentric excuse for a man had his stomach in a knot. Count oranges, he told himself, calm down. There were four oranges in the basket.

Anatole squinted at a flash of movement in the dining room. “I don’t want you to panic, Kate, but there’s something running around in your dining room. Something small and black.”

“That’s my kitten.”

Anatole’s reaction would have been exactly the same if she’d said that’s my pet rat. “You also have a boarder?”

“Yup. Elsie. She’s terrific.”

Anatole looked at Kate’s stomach. “Pregnant, too, I see.” He lowered his voice. “I know you’ve always wanted children, but don’t you think you could have been more discerning about a father? In fact, marriage isn’t even necessary these days. There are a lot of single-parent families.”

Kate clapped her hands to her stomach. “I’m not pregnant! This is water retention.” She stared down at herself and sighed. “To be honest, this is Ben and Jerry’s Brownie Bars.” She glanced at Dave and saw the flicker of surprise pass behind his eyes.

“I didn’t know that you always wanted children,” Dave said, looking incredibly pleased by his discovery.

“It was a phase,” Kate said. “A very brief phase. I had this ridiculous notion that I could handle a concert career and motherhood all at the same time. But as you can see, I can barely find my own socks in the morning. There are some women who simply weren’t meant to be mothers.”

“That’s okay by me,” Dave said. “You can be the father. I’ll be the mother.”

“He’s a little weird,” Anatole said to Kate. “He isn’t dangerous, is he?”

Kate smiled. “He has his moments.”

She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth when the house was rocked by a series of explosions. Glass rattled and the street was lit by the orange glow of fire. Dave looked past Kate, through the long, curtainless windows. “It’s the drug house across the street!”

Flames shot from every window of the house. Smoke billowed from the roof and began to cast a pall over the neighborhood. People poured into the street from surrounding houses, and sirens screamed in the distance. There was no sign of life in the burning building, but the very thought of it sent a chill through Kate.

She hobbled down her front stairs and stood squinting at the spectacle, mesmerized by the power of the fire. It was impossible not to stare at it. It was compelling and horrible and awesome. She could feel the heat against her face and hear the hiss of destruction.