“Very cool.” Logan had always sensed a special kind of sexiness in athletic girls. There was something about their confidence that appealed to him. And Darcy had it in spades.

“What about you?” she asked. “You looked pretty good out there yourself.”

“I’m surprised I never ran into you at Cupsogue,” he confessed. “It was one of my favorite places to go when I was shirking chores in the summer.”

“I probably blew the whistle at you when you were a skinny kid getting too close to the jetty,” she said.

She was the same age as his older sister, he thought. Four years older than him. “You should have said hi,” he pointed out.

“Maybe I did. Or maybe we weren’t meant to meet until now.”

For some reason, he liked the idea that they’d been circling closer and closer, unaware of each other until now. He’d never felt quite so comfortable around a woman before. She was just easy to be with. And now that he had the indelible image of her in his head—yellow bikini, board glued to her feet, long hair streaming—she was more interesting than ever.

The brothers-in-law perked up when there was a big play in the game. Al pounded his beer bottle on a side table. “Damn, that’s sweet,” he said. “I always thought you should have gone out for football in high school, son.”

Logan chuckled, though he wasn’t amused. “As I recall, I stayed so busy with soccer there wasn’t time for anything else.”

“You make time for what’s important to you,” said Al.

Logan was determined not to rise to the bait. “Right now I’d like to make time for Mom’s pumpkin pie.”

“Ah, sounds fantastic,” said Bilski.

“I’ll go start hovering in the kitchen,” said Ethan, the other brother-in-law, rising from the sofa with a groan.

“How about you?” Logan asked Darcy. “Pumpkin pie, or pecan?”

“Pumpkin all the way.”

“Hey, I heard a rumor of pie,” said Logan’s niece, Bernie. The rest of the nieces and nephews, along with Charlie, came charging into the room.

“I have a secret weapon,” said Inez as Ethan wheeled out the dessert cart. “I put whipped cream on top and sprinkle it with chopped maple glazed pecans.”

“I can’t make up my mind,” Charlie said.

“Inez, you’re killing me,” said Logan.

“You’re awesome,” said Charlie, wedging himself on the sofa between Logan and Darcy.

Thanks, pal, thought Logan. Thanks a hell of a lot.

“Arigato,” Charlie added.

“He knows lots of words in Japanese,” said Fisher.

“Yeah,” said Goose. “Charlie speaks Japanese now.”

“Are you getting excited about moving to Japan?” Bilski asked him.

“It’s gonna be pretty rad.” Charlie shoveled in a big bite of pie.

“What are you looking forward to the most?” asked China. She was a teacher, adept at getting kids to talk.