“You’re doing such a good job, I don’t think you’re going to need the tool I brought along for you.”

“Is it a hammer?”

“Afraid not.” She reached into her bag, pulled it out. “It’s a deadly predator.”

“It’s a T-Rex! Look, Dad. They ate everybody.”

“Very scary,” Brody agreed and laid a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Can I take it into school? ’Cause look, its arms and legs move and everything. His mouth goes chomp. Can I?”

“I think it’d be a good visual aid to your project, don’t you, Dad? And there’s this little booklet here that talks about how he lived, and when, and how he ate everybody.”

“Couldn’t hurt. Jack, aren’t you going to thank Kate?”

“Thanks, Kate.” Jack marched the dinosaur across the poster. “Thanks a lot. He’s really good.”

“You’re welcome a lot. How about a kiss?”

He grinned and covered his face with his hands. “Nuh-uh.”

“Okay, I’ll just kiss your dad.” She turned her head before Brody could react and closed her mouth firmly over his.

He avoided kissing her, touching her, when Jack was around. That, Kate decided, deliberately sliding her arms around Brody’s waist, would have to change.

Jack made gagging noises behind his hands. But he was watching carefully, and there was a funny fluttering in his stomach.

“A woman’s got to take her kisses where she finds them,” Kate stated, easing back while Brody stood flustered. “Now, my work is done, I have to go.”

“Aw, can’t you stay? You can help draw the dinosaurs. We’re going to have sloppy burgers for dinner.”

“As delightful as that is, I can’t. I have an appointment in town.” Which was true. But she thought the ambush—the drop-by, she corrected—would be more effective if she kept it brief and casual. “Maybe, this weekend if you’re not busy, we can go to the movies again.”

“All right!”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Brody. No, no,” she said when he turned. “I know the way out. Get back to your dinosaurs.”

“Thanks for coming by,” he said, and said nothing else, not even when he heard her close the front door.

“Dad?”

“Hmm.”

“Do you like kissing Kate?”

“Yeah. I mean…” Okay, Brody thought, here we go. Because Jack was watching him carefully, he sat. “It’s kind of hard to explain, but when you get older… Most guys like kissing girls.”

“Just the pretty ones?”

“No, well, no. But girls you like.”

“And we like Kate, right?”

“Sure we do.” Brody breathed a sigh of relief that the discussion hadn’t deepened into some stickier area of sex education. Not yet, he thought. Not quite yet.

“Dad?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to marry Kate?”

“Am I—” His shock was no less than if Jack had suddenly kicked his chair out from under him. “Jeez, Jack, where did that come from?”

“’Cause you like her, and you like kissing her, and you don’t have a wife. Rod’s mom and dad, sometimes they kiss each other in the kitchen, too.”