ALECTHIS WASN’T HOW I’D SEEN MY WEEKEND GOING WHEN I WOKE UPyesterday morning. Then Keli called last night to ask if she could have Evanne for the weekend so the two of them could do some back-to-school shopping and girls’ day things.I assumed that meant a spa, manicure, pedicure, that sort of thing. When I heard Evanne chattering excitedly in the background, I agreed. Keli had always been good at working with my schedule when I needed her to. I’d take Evanne for the three-day weekend over Labor Day, and we’d do our own special stuff then. She’d been begging me to take her rock climbing, so maybe we’d do that.The downside to Keli taking Evanne at the last minute was that I hadn’t planned on having nothing to do for the weekend, and I needed to stay busy to keep from thinking about Lumen. I’d been on my way home when I’d gotten a text from Duncan MacLean, an old friend of mine from Edinburgh, inviting me to stop in for a tasting of his new scotch.Duncan and I weren

ALECNORMALLY, I HAD EVANNE ONE TO TWO WEEKENDS PER MONTH,depending on how work was going, but three-day weekends like Memorial Day or Labor Day, those were mine, and as inadequate as I sometimes felt when it came to parenting an eight-year-old girl, I loved having that extra day.A couple weeks ago, Keli had asked me to take an extra day this weekend, dropping Evanne off on Thursday evening instead of Friday night. At first, I’d thought about making an excuse, but I’d felt a flood of guilt after a few seconds. Keli had always been so good about our arrangement that I felt like a complete bastard telling her I couldn’t take a single extra day off from the company my family owned.I’d checked with my assistant, Tuesday Boswell, and she’d assured me that MIRI – McCrae International Research Institute – could survive without me for four days. I’d almost snapped at her for being so smug, but she was an excellent assistant, and I could be a di cult bastard to work for sometimes. Fortunately

ALECCONTRARY  TO  WHAT  CLASSIC  FAIRY  TALES  HAD   TO   SAY,  STEPMOTHERSwere a godsend.My mother hadn’t been gone for a year when my father had come home from a business trip to America to say that he’d met someone. Five months  later,  Theresa  Gracen Carideo became my stepmother and brought with her four children: Austin, Rome, Paris, and  Aspen.  I’d  gone  from being one of five to being one of nine, and I’d resented it.Theresa had been a widow, so she’d not only understood loss, but she’d helped her own kids after their father died. Things hadn’t magically gotten better between us, but she’d been as patient with me and my siblings as she’d been with her own biological kids, and we’d eventually developed a wonderful relationship.Wonderful enough that after I’d put Evanne to bed Thursday night, I’d called Theresa. She’d been at my house the next morning. With Evanne being the only grandchild on my side of the fami

ALECWHEN I’D  SEEN  LUMEN  WALKING  DOWN  THE  ROAD  THE  OTHER  DAY,  IThad felt like fate. I’d never been much of a believer in that sort of thing, but how else could I explain seeing her two completely random times after our awkward first and second meetings?Logic said that in a city the size of Seattle, with neither her nor I having just moved, the chances of us having that many chance meetings would be phenomenal. I’d almost been tempted to have someone run the numbers.That or buy a lottery ticket.What made me even more convinced that some higher power was bringing us together was that before I’d left the house to go on a run that day – an activity I did only rarely in the first place – Theresa had suggested that since she’d be returning to San Ramon on Sunday, I should take advantage of her presence to go out at least once. I’d told her that it wasn’t necessary, but then I’d seen Lumen and decided to make one last

LUMENWHEN I’D AGREED TO GO OUT WITH ALEC, KNOWING THAT I’D BEsleeping with him, I’d completely forgotten that I’d signed up to take Soleil school shopping the next afternoon, but I was grateful for it.I’d stayed at the hotel all night, mostly because I would’ve felt even more awkward leaving in the middle of the night. Well, that and the fact that I really wasn’t looking forward to getting the third-degree from Mai. When my phone alarm had woken me up with a reminder of where I had to be at noon, I’d been relieved that I wouldn’t need to come up with ways to fill my hours to avoid thinking about the fact that I wasn’t a virgin anymore.Not that I was thinking of it that way, not really. Sex just hadn’t occupied much of my thoughts, but on the rare times it had come up, the virginity thing had always hovered around the edges. Now, I was full of new aches that reminded me constantly of what had happened last night, which meant an awareness of what I wasn’t anymore.O