Nealy listened to their chatter as Mat disappeared through the family room with an arm around each of her daughters. Both of them were looking at him as if he’d hung the moon and stars just to entertain them. She realized she was shaking and drew a deep breath before she headed for the kitchen.

He was lowering Button into her high chair as she came in. He looked completely at home in the cozy kitchen with its cherry cabinets, shiny copper, and collection of bright orange pumpkins on the counter. The round table sat in a bay overlooking the garden at the side of the house. It was set with pottery plates, chunky green goblets, and Button’s special Alice in Wonderland dishes.

“Sit here, Mat!” Lucy indicated her own chair, directly to Nealy’s right. “Usually Andre and Tamarah eat with us, but Andre got his shots this afternoon, so he’s cranky, and Tamarah’s trying to study for a math test.”

“I’ve got a hockey stick for Andre out in the car,” he said. “And some skates.”

Nealy stared at him. He’d bought a six-month-old baby hockey equipment?

“Cool.” Lucy sat on the other side of Button’s high chair, safely out of spill range. “Since Button’s so messy, we don’t eat in the dining room unless we have important company.” She pulled a face. “Like you-know-who.”

“No, I don’t.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Graaaandfather Liiiitchfield. He calls me Lucille. Doesn’t that blow? And he calls Button Beatrice, even though she hates it. She threw up on him once. It was hysterical, wasn’t it, Mom?”

Nealy watched Mat’s expression change as he heard Lucy call her Mom, but she couldn’t identify exactly what she saw there. “It was definitely one of Button’s finer moments,” she managed.

Mat leaned back in his chair and gazed at her. Had he noticed how much they looked like a family?

“How did your meetings go today? Did you jiggle any change loose from those corporate high rollers?”

“A little.” She couldn’t carry on casual conversation with him, so she turned to Button. “Do you like your potatoes?”

The baby pulled a food-smeared fist from her mouth and pointed at her sister. “Woos!”

Lucy giggled. “That’s what she calls me. Woos. She just started it a couple weeks ago.”

“Ma!”

Nealy smiled. “You’ve got that one down pat, don’t you, cupcake?”

“Da!”

Mat looked at Nealy instead of the baby. “She’s got that right, too.”

Nealy wouldn’t let him do this. He couldn’t worm his way into their lives because he’d finally decided he missed the girls. She might have to come to terms with letting him see them, but that didn’t mean she had to accept those leftover, lukewarm feelings he was tossing at her and pretend they were something more.