Leo let go of Jess’s leg and ran to the swing. Jess strode after him and Karen noticed she flinched as she lowered him into the bucket seat.

“Sore back? Lifting a toddler up and down all day is like hefting sacks of potatoes.”

Jess didn’t reply so Karen turned her attention to Leo. “Here we go.” She pushed him gently.

Leo squealed in delight. “More.”

“I thought Libby would have instructed you to grab him and run,” Jess said bitterly.

“I thought you wanted him to spend time with his father.”

“I do. It’s not an unreasonable request that his father pick him up.”

Karen didn’t want this first pick-up to devolve into an argument over Jess’s inability to understand that her action of conceiving with Nick meant she was no longer welcomed into Libby’s family the way she’d once been. She focused on Leo instead.

“I want Leo to trust me, not fear me. I want him to associate me with fun not dread. A bit of a play here before we leave will help.” Karen lightly touched Jess’s arm. “So will him seeing you happy with me.”

Jess sighed and unfolded her arms. “It’s a shame your daughter doesn’t think the same way as you.”

“Well, we’re not in the same situation, are we?”

“Leo is your grandson.”

Technically, he wasn’t. But as Karen had often been a stand-in mother to teenage Jess, she didn’t have the heart to say it. “I want us to make this transfer a positive experience for the three of us.”

Jess stared into the middle distance. “I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

Having a married man’s child? Losing your best friend? Being ostracized by half the town? Sole parenting? “What would be this hard?”

“Leo spending time with Nick without me. Me not knowing what they’re doing. And Leo’s not old enough to tell me!”

Oh, Jess. Karen’s heart bled for the confused and lonely woman who reminded her of herself before she’d met Peter. Although Karen understood Jess was accountable for her actions, the memories of her own parents’ zealotry could still lance her with pain. She had a sudden and violent urge to bring Linda back from the dead and scream, “How could you have let her down so badly?”