Her quick flight precluded any opportunity for him to exchange so much as a word with Janet. He rolled down his window and managed a wave that was returned halfheartedly before the car backed onto the highway and disappeared from view as quickly as it had come.

He chafed at letting a thirteen-year-old interfere in his life. He figured Janet ought to be mad as hell about it, too, but she seemed to have accepted Jenny’s right to stand squarely between her and him.

For the rest of the week he only managed to eke out bits and pieces of information about Janet from her sullen, tight-lipped daughter. He couldn’t seem to break the pattern that had been established on Monday. Janet never came any closer than the end of the lane. Her aloof behavior left him rattled and irritable.

He couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so fascinated by a woman. It must have been when he’d first met Mary, though. Not once in all the years since then had he ever strayed in thought or deed.

Mary had been a good wife, devoted to a fault. Sometimes he’d almost regretted the way she’d doted on him to the exclusion of their sons. He’d never doubted her love for Luke, Erik, Jordan and Cody, but she’d focused all of her attention on him. He’d felt cherished and, in return, he had made her the center of his life, as well.

Ever since her death, there had been this huge, empty space inside him. And, despite the attempts of his sons to fill the endless hours of the day, he’d been lonely. He hadn’t really recognized that until he’d suddenly felt so alive the minute he’d walked into Janet Runningbear’s office after that heart-in-his-throat spectacle of her daughter crashing his pickup into a tree. He wasn’t going to give up the feeling she stirred in him without a fight.

By Friday he was at his wit’s end. He figured the only way to get back on speaking terms with Janet was to get her clear up to the house. And the only way to do that was to see to it Jenny wasn’t waiting at the end of that lane for her.

On Friday morning he enlisted Cody’s help. “How about taking Jenny with you this afternoon? It’s about time she got a real look at the workings of this place.”

If Cody guessed his father’s intentions, he didn’t let on. “I won’t be back until dark,” he warned.

“That’s okay.”

“Won’t Janet be expecting to pick her up at five as usual?”

“I’ll keep Janet entertained.”

Cody grinned. “If you say so. I’ll come back for Jenny at lunchtime.”

“Thanks, son.”

“Don’t mention it.”