And they had at first. Amy, just sixteen, who had fewer memories of the tensions between her parents when they had been together, harbored more resentment toward him than had Emily, two years older. They still had things to work on, all three of them, but both girls had flown out for the wedding. He felt that was a good start to acceptance of his new life.

He stretched out in his big leather recliner—the Man Chair, Anne called it—in their cozy family room with its warm tan walls and cream-colored carpet. He was exhausted and still disturbed from his encounter with Zander Zahn. All that and he was going to have a nasty bruise on his cheekbone too.

Popped by a professor. The boys in the cop shop would have fun with that. Not that Zahn’s meltdown was anything to joke about.

Sighing, he closed his eyes for a few minutes in an attempt to relax his brain.

He had a lot of thoughts and theories turning over up there, and it had physically been a long day. But miraculously the pain in his head receded as he rested and used some of the breathing techniques he had learned from a chronic pain specialist. It rarely completely left him, but rather lurked in there somewhere at its lowest level, keeping him aware it could come out and nail him whenever it wanted to.

Gradually Vince came up out of the restful place his mind had been, and he became aware of the sense of being watched. When he opened his eyes he was looking into Haley’s. She stood beside the chair with her rabbit tucked under her arm.

“Hey,” Vince said.

“You were sleeping,” Haley said in her hoarse little voice.

He wondered if she would ever be rid of that reminder of being choked. At least the bruising on the exterior of her throat would eventually fade away, if not the memory.

“Do you have to take naps?” she asked.

“I like to take naps.”

“I don’t.”

“No? Why not?”

Her expression was very sober as she shook her head. “Babies take naps.”

“I’m not a baby,” Vince pointed out.

“No.” Her little mouth twisted up on one side in a funny smile. “You’re the daddy. Why don’t you have any kids?”

“Well, because Anne and I just got married. We haven’t had time to have kids yet.”

She thought about that, deciding it must be a reasonable explanation.

“Where’s Anne?”

“She had to go have a meeting with someone. She’ll be back in a little while.”

“I like Anne. She plays with me,” she said, as if she and Anne were longtime friends.