Magnus watched Allie struggle with her irritation at Lucian’s high-handed manner, but after a moment she seemed to let go of it on a sigh and shook her head before saying apologetically, “Not much, I’m afraid.”

He noted the concentration on the faces of Lucian and the others and knew they were reading her thoughts for the information they sought. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that so suggested, “Just tell us what you do know.”

Allie nodded and glanced down at her hands briefly, but then nodded again. “One of them is Liam’s father.”

Magnus frowned at this news. “How did you end up with Liam?”

“His mother, Stella,” Allie answered, smiling softly. “I met her about a month after buying my first home, a town house in Calgary. It was summertime, August, and one night some rude idiot decided to mow their lawn,” she said with remembered irritation. “I’d put up with the noise of a dozen lawn mowers all day and evening. It’s expected in the summer, that’s why I worked nights. It was quiet then and I could concentrate. Usually, but not that night. It was around ten thirty—the kids were all inside getting ready for bed if not there already, the rest of the street had finally settled down to quiet, and then vroom. Ugh.” Allie shook her head. “I wanted to throttle whoever it was, but I tried to ignore it and kept working. When the engine cut out, I was relieved and thought it was done, but then they tried to restart it, and failed, and tried again and again, their machine making the most god-awful coughing sounds. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and went outside ready to tear into the thoughtless prick making all that racket at that hour.”

Allie grinned crookedly. “That’s when I first saw her. A petite little brunette with an obvious baby bump, looking exhausted and about as frustrated as me and yanking on the lawn mower cord over and over.”

Magnus smiled at her description, almost able to see it in his mind.

“Instead of bawling her out for her choice of time for doing lawn maintenance, I ended up helping. I mean, she was nearly done anyway, so I figured a few more minutes of racket and it would be done and I could get back to work. Right?”

When Allie rolled her eyes, Magnus found himself smiling, and asked, “I am guessing it did not work out that way?”

“No,” she admitted on a sigh. “I must have spent an hour checking her lawn mower. I went over the spark plug wire, the spark plug itself, the brake cable, the oil level . . .” Allie grimaced. “Of course, we were chatting while I did it, which slowed me down. It wouldn’t normally have taken me that long.”