“Only if you think about it.” She lowered her foot to the floor. “How old are you, Carrie?”

“I’m five. I can touch my toes.”

Five, Kate thought. The bones were still soft. The body still able to learn to do the unnatural. “If you and your mama decide you should come to my school next spring, I’ll teach you to dance. And you’ll show your brother that ballet isn’t for sissies.”

She winked at Carrie, then let her body flow back into a smooth back-bend. She kicked her legs gracefully to the ceiling, held there a moment, then simply flowed upright again.

“Wow,” Rod whispered to Jack. “She’s cool.”

Brody said nothing. Saliva had pooled in his mouth.

“Ballet is for athletes.” Tossing back her hair, she angled her head at Rod. “A number of professional football players take rudimentary ballet, to help them move fast and smooth on the field.”

“No way,” Rod said.

“Way. Come with your sister a few times, Rod. I’ll show you.”

“Now, that’s asking for a headache.” With a laugh, Beth signaled her son. “Come on, trouble.”

Brody slapped himself out of a particularly detailed fantasy that involved that stupendously flexible body. “Thanks for seeing to Jack, Beth.”

“Oh, you know it’s no bother. Happy to have old Jack anytime.”

“Really?” Kate murmured, sending Brody a long look.

“Sure, he’s…” Beth shifted her eyes between Brody and Kate, then bit down on a grin. Well, well, well. It was about damn time the man started looking past his nose. “He’s a pure pleasure,” Beth went on. “In fact, I was thinking about cooking up a big pot of spaghetti one night this week and seeing if Jack wanted to have dinner with Rod.”

“Friday’s a great night for spaghetti,” Kate said sweetly. “Don’t you think, Brody?”

“I don’t know. I—”

“You know, Friday’s just perfect.” Thrilled to help Kate execute the squeeze play, Beth nudged her kids to the door. “We’ll count on that then. Jack’ll just come over after school, and stay for dinner. He and the kids can watch a video after. Maybe you should plan on him spending the night. That’ll work out. Just send him to school Friday with a change of clothes. Nice to see you again, Kate.”

“Very nice seeing you.”

“I get to have a sleep-over at Rod’s.” Thrilled, Jack plopped down to do some somersaults. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Yeah.” Kate trailed a finger down Brody’s chest, chuckled at his shell-shocked expression. “Thanks, Dad.”

Chapter Six

Friday was not turning out to be a terrific cap to the work week. One of his men called in sick, felled by the flu that was gleefully making the rounds. Brody sent another man home at noon who was too sick to be out of bed much less swinging a hammer.

Since the other half of his four-man crew was finishing up a trim job across the river in Maryland, that left Brody to deal with the plumbing inspector, to hang the drywall for the partition between Kate’s office and the school’s kitchen, and to finish stripping the woodwork in those two areas.