“You guys are amazing,” Jenny said. They’d told her she’d done her part by donating the place, but she’d also made two huge salads and one of her favorite desserts to lend to the cause. It was just as well that she didn’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting, because her arms and legs were dead from surfing—if you could call what she’d done “surfing.” It was more like falling with style, as Buzz Lightyear would say.

Alex had been a patient teacher, and she’d more or less gotten the hang of it. He told her it would take a lot more practice before she mastered it, and he promised to give her another lesson soon. He’d gone home to check on his mom before the party, and she expected him back any time. She had butterflies in her belly when she thought about taking their relationship fully public with her friends, but she knew they’d be thrilled for her.

She was pretty thrilled for herself, she thought as she cuddled with Thomas, Hailey, Ashleigh and Holden on a blanket spread over the grass. Jenny had volunteered to keep an eye on the kids during the setup. Hailey had crawled into Jenny’s lap, and Ashleigh had her head on Jenny’s leg as she took a look at Thomas’s new board book.

Jenny was so absorbed in the kids and their chatter that she didn’t notice Alex approaching her until he was right on top of them. “Oh, hey,” she said, her body tingling in delight at the very sight of him. “I didn’t see you coming.”

He raised a brow in that naughty, sexy way of his and made her laugh.

“Not in front of the children.”

“You’re a natural,” he said, squatting next to the blanket.

“I don’t know about that, but I do enjoy them as well as my own nieces and nephews.”

“Do you want your own?”

Jenny stared at him, the question arcing between them like a live wire. “I used to. I figured I’d be staring down the teenage years by now.” She shrugged off the stab of pain that came with remembering old dreams. “But I’m probably past all that.”

“Because you’re such an old hag.”

“Hey!”

“Come on, Jenny. You’re only what? Thirty-six?”

“Seven. And a half.”

“Jeez, I had no idea you were so much older than me.”

“How much older?” She couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to her to ask him how old he was.

“You’ve got three and a half years on me.”

“Oh my God! I’m a cradle robber.”

“What’s a cradle robber, Jenny?” Thomas asked.

Jenny bit her lip to keep from laughing. “It’s when an old lady like me goes out with a young guy like Alex.”