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.She wasn’t talking about the marina; she was talking about her own home.He told himself it was his imagination, that there was no way in hell Alex would think about selling her house, but he couldn’t deny the gut feeling that something had changed.He just didn’t know what it was.* * *Alex had a doctor’s appointment five days after Brian’s surprise visit.She hadn’t been sleeping well.Every time she closed her eyes she saw Griffin swooping down on Sea Gate like an avenging warrior, determined to claim her baby.“You need rest,” Dr.Schulman said.“Your blood pressure is slightly elevated, and that intermittent spotting concerns me.”“There was very little,” Alex said, clasping her hands tightly together.“I’m fine, Doctor.Really.”“I’m going to have to insist on that sonogram, Alex.If you’re worried about the baby, I can assure you the sonogram is a safe procedure.”Alex relented and made an appointment for April 2.She’d keep it if she hadn’t already left town.TwentyMaking up her mind to confront Brian Gallagher had turned out to be the easy part.Finding the right time turned out to be anything but.Either she was working extra hours, or Mark was home on spring break or Mercury had gone retrograde and wasn’t coming out until the millennium.All Dee knew was that every time she thought she’d found the perfect time, fate told her exactly what it thought of her plans.Opportunity finally presented itself in the form of a permission slip from one of Mark’s teachers.The science department was organizing an overnight field trip to the Pine Barrens on the same night as the second Save Sea Gate meeting.Dee took it as a sign from God that she was doing the right thing.Brian’s phone calls had slowed down to a trickle.She supposed it was because he’d finally gotten the idea that she wasn’t going to sleep with him again.At first he was cool to the idea of getting together, but she wasn’t about to take no for an answer.He might be terrific in the courtroom, but he was no match for a mother out to help her child.The days until the field trip seemed to pass in slow motion.Rich and his wife left for Florida.Sally began the process of shutting down her bait and tackle shop.Eddie had an incident with a school crossing guard, and Alex moved back into Marge Winslow’s old place.Only Dee seemed to be trapped in a state of suspended animation, waiting.* * *“Sorry I’m late.” Brian shrugged out of his camel’s hair coat and handed it to Dee.Only Brian would wear a camel’s hair coat at the end of March.“Traffic’s building up down here.”“Tell me something I don’t know,” Dee said, draping his coat over the back of a chair.“It takes me an hour to get to the community college, and that’s after the evening rush.”“The community college?”Damn it.Why had she mentioned that? Nobody but Mark knew she was taking classes toward a degree.“I’m taking an adult ed course.” Basket-weaving.Embroidery.Astrology.Let him think whatever he wanted.“Margo took a course a few years ago.Cake decorating.” He shook his head.“It didn’t occur to her she’d have to actually bake a cake in order to have something to decorate.”There was an ugly subtext to his words that made her feel an unexpected kinship with his wife.‘Sit down,” she said, gesturing toward the couch.He glanced around the room.“I could use a Scotch.”“Sorry,” she said.“I don’t have any.”“Brandy will do.”“I have coffee,” she said, sitting down on the chair opposite him.“If you’d like some.”He shook his head, then brushed some cat hair off the sofa cushion and sat down.Apparently the cats in his world didn’t shed.The fact that she didn’t hit him in the head with a lamp was proof of how much she loved her son.“Okay,” he said.“I’m here.What did you want to talk to me about?”She met his eyes, then said the words she wished she’d said sixteen years ago.“I want to talk about our son.”* * *“You can let me off at the corner,” Mark said.“I’ll walk the rest of the way.” He was the last of the students to be dropped off.Mr.Carling, his science teacher, pulled over to the curb and stopped the minivan.“Sure you can manage your gear?”“No prob,” Mark said, grabbing his backpack.“See you tomorrow.”The field trip to the Pine Barrens had been a total bust.First it started raining, then the police showed up and said Mr.Carling didn’t have the right paperwork from the county.Mark’s one chance to look for the Jersey Devil and it got screwed up.“We have a curriculum planned,” the teacher had protested.“Next time bring the right papers,” the cop had said, then directed them back to the highway.The rain was coming down harder.Mark lowered his head and started jogging toward home.His mom usually had school on Tuesday nights.She was halfway toward getting her associate’s degree in business, and he was really proud of her.Maybe he’d make a pot of chili and surprise her when she came home.She’d been acting strange the last few weeks, as if she had something on her mind.He knew she’d been seeing Sam Weitz, but he didn’t think she wanted to marry the guy.At least he hoped she didn’t.It had just been the two of them for a long time now, and he didn’t want some guy coming in thinking he would run the house
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