Jenny rode off with Cody just after noon, looking as besotted as if she’d just been granted a date with her favorite movie star. Harlan spent the next few hours catching up on paperwork in his office, then dressed for his meeting with Janet as eagerly as if they were going out on a date. His sons would have laughed their fool heads off if they’d seen him debating what to wear, only to end up in a pin-striped dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, jeans and his best boots. A pile of discards worse than any Mary had ever left strewn around covered the king-size bed.

Promptly at five he took a pitcher of iced tea, two tall glasses, a bowl of Maritza’s pico de gallo and some tortilla chips onto the porch. Leaning back in a rocker, his boots propped on the porch railing, he settled back to wait. He wondered how long it would be before Janet guessed that he wasn’t bringing Jenny to the end of the lane and resigned herself to driving to the house to pick her up. He figured fifteen minutes.

He was off by five. At ten minutes past five she came flying up the lane, sending up a cloud of dust. She leapt out of the car, her expression half frantic.

“Where’s Jenny? Has something happened to her?”

“She’s fine,” he soothed. “She’s off helping Cody this afternoon. She won’t be back for a while yet. Come on up and join me.”

Janet regarded the tea and tortilla chips suspiciously. “What’s all that?”

“Just a little something to tide us over while we wait. Figured you might be thirsty and hungry this time of day.”

“Exactly when are you expecting them back?”

“Seven or so.”

She stared at him incredulously. “Seven? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just did,” he said, holding out the glass of tea.

Janet ignored it. Hands on hips, she stared him down, practically quivering with indignation. “What kind of game are you playing, Harlan Adams?”

“I could ask you the same question. You’ve spent the past five days avoiding me. Whose idea was that? Yours or Jenny’s?”

She sighed and sank down onto the top step. She finally accepted the glass of tea and took a long swallow. “A little of both, I suppose.”

“Shouldn’t you have told me?” he said, mimicking her tone.

“I just did,” she said, and chuckled. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. For a pair of grown-ups we are pretty pathetic, aren’t we? Seems to me we should be past resorting to games or letting a teenager rule the way we live our lives.”