Jenner laughed and walked over to give her a hug. He might be old, but he was a good-looking son of a bitch, and Kevin wasn’t crazy about the way he and the bunny lady were hanging on to each other.

“You’ve got to meet my sister. She used to run a gallery in New York, but I won’t tell her who you are.”

Yeah, right. Molly’s eyes flashed the mischief jitterbug, but Jenner was oblivious. Sucka.

As the artist headed toward Phoebe, he walked right past Lilly. Maybe Liam had gotten fed up with all her early-morning rejections at the kitchen table. Kevin couldn’t figure it out. If Lilly didn’t like being around him, why did she keep showing up for breakfast?

He glanced from Lilly to Molly and tried to pick the exact moment when his long practice of surrounding himself with low-maintenance women had exploded in his face. He slammed his ball cap down on his head and promised himself he’d watch game film tonight.

The men wanted to talk football, and Kevin and Dan complied. Around five some of the adults began to drift away, but the kids were still enjoying themselves, and Kevin decided he’d put up a basketball hoop tomorrow. Maybe he’d buy some rubber rafts for the beach. And bikes. The kids should have bikes while they were here.

Cody and the O’Brian boys came running up, their faces sweaty and clothes grimy. Exactly the way a kid should look in the summer.

“Hey, Kevin! Can we play softball?”

He could feel the smile spreading all over his face. A softball game on the Common, right where the tabernacle had once stood … “Sure we can. Listen up! Everybody who wants to play softball, raise your hand.”

Hands went up all over the place. Tess and Julie raced forward, and Andrew started to yell and hop. Even the adults were interested.

“A softball game is a wonderful idea,” Charlotte Long chirped from her lawn chair. “Get everything organized, Kevin.”

He smiled at her poking. “You want to be a captain, Cody?”

“Sure.”

He looked around for another captain and started to pick Tess, but something about the way Hannah was sitting at her father’s feet cuddling the poodles got to him. He’d seen her hand inch up, only to settle back into her lap. “Hannah, how about you? Do you want to be the other captain?”

Kevin was startled to see Dan drop his head and groan.

“No, Kevin!” Tess and Julie cried together. “Not Hannah!”

Molly surprised him most of all—the bunny lady, who was supposed to be so damn sensitive around kids. “Uh … maybe it would be better if you picked somebody else.”

What was wrong with these people?