“Just put it there, to the side of the window,” Katie said, and silently counted her lucky stars that the conversation was dropped. She carried the evidence of her evening with Luke into the kitchen and hoped Trevor’s curiosity was sated. She didn’t want to think about Luke and what had happened between them. Not now. Nor did she want to explain it to anyone. Especially her half-brothers.

She had too much to do.

An installer from the phone company came and hooked up the telephone and fax line while she was organizing the kitchen. In the midst of the pure chaos of wadded newspapers on the counters and floors, dishes in every available space and cupboards half filled, the easygoing man worked on the outlets, kept up a steady stream of conversation about his grandchildren and managed to install three phones.

Once they were installed, she found her courage along with Ralph Sorenson’s phone number and she dialed. One ring, two, three and so on. No answer. No answering machine. She hung up disappointed, but told herself she’d try again.

A few minutes later Tiffany and J.D. came over and they, along with Katie’s half-brothers, finished putting things in order. Christina was confused, but contented herself in chasing a nervous Blue through the house and Stephen and Josh holed up in Josh’s new room. Though Stephen was three years older and in high school, he didn’t seem to mind hanging out with his younger half-cousin when they weren’t in school.

“It looks different,” Tiffany said as she eyed the parlor and foyer. “And yet the same.”

“It’ll take some getting used to.”

“For all of us.” Tiffany showed Katie a file she’d left in the front-hall closet. Inside was information on the house, rental agreements, application forms and extra sets of keys. “I’ll get you started and show you how this works,” she said,

“but it’s not all that tough once you get the hang of it, and you can always call me.”

“Hey, now that the phones are hooked up, how about ordering pizza?” Trevor called down from the second floor.

Katie grinned. “You think you deserve to be fed?”

“At least. It wouldn’t hurt if you stocked the refrigerator with some beer, too.”

“Okay, okay. You guys are in charge of the kids. Come on, Tiffany, let’s run down to Papa Luigi’s and figure out what we need for this crowd.”

“Pepperoni!” Josh yelled.

“With double cheese,” Jarrod added.

“Naw, get the all-meat special.” Trevor was reaching for his wallet. “An extra large and—”