“I wonder if I could impose on you to take them fishing or something? We have a fundamental absence of men here.”

“Yeah. Sure,” he said, suddenly exhausted. His eyes began to blur, and he acknowledged the remarkable presence of threatening tears. God, how he had loved her. “Let me know if there’s anything more you need,” he said, pocketing the check, dying to get back to his truck. He usually loved hanging around with the women, but this time he couldn’t chance it. He could barely breathe. “And for God’s sake, take care of yourself, Jess.”

“I do need a crew, beginning soon, to spruce up the place. I’m planning to have a very large party here in mid-June, and I want some extensive landscaping and building done. I’m going to wait for Leigh to get here—just a couple of days from now—and get her input before I start, since she’s going to live here for several months…though I do hope she stays on permanently now. You can do it, can’t you? Handle a big job?”

“Permanently?” He nearly choked. “She’s coming to live here permanently?”

She laughed, and the women joined her, stifling their chuckles. “Well, I admit I’m only calling it a long visit, but I fully intend to hang on to her this time. She loves Durango. No reason she can’t stay. It’s the perfect place to raise kids, and Leigh knows that.”

“Sure,” he said weakly. Imagine having her around all the time, running into her at the grocery store, at the Jaycee’s Spring Art Fair…at the Steak House.

“Will you be able to do the yard this spring, John?”

“Yeah. Sure. Gotta run. Busy day. Lotta calls. Take it easy, ladies.”

“Bye, John,” was said, times four.

He let the back door slam shut, took the steps down from the deck two at a time and loped to his truck. At last he was alone. He waited a minute to start the engine. Leigh was burned-out and frazzled, he thought. That was what had been itching in her before, when he’d hoped it was him. It hadn’t been, obviously.

* * *

Jess saw him sitting in his truck in front of the house as she watched from the living-room window. Abby came up behind her and reached over her shoulder to pull back the curtain for a better look.

“Don’t do that,” Jess whispered. “What if he sees us watching him.”

“You don’t have to whisper,” Kate said. “He can’t hear us.”

“So? What do you think?” Jess asked.

“He just about fainted when you told him she had kids, but that doesn’t mean anything. How did he react when you said she was coming home?”

“Oh, like he wanted to get in the hole he was digging.”