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him.
    “Find someplace for him to go if you prefer,” he said, his voice hard. “We’re going to talk about this either way. Seven o’clock.”
    He was gone, only the dead quality of the silence telling her that protest was useless.
    Her hand, when she took the phone from her ear, was shaking.
     

    “H E CAME, HE SAW, HE KNOWS ,” Naomi said, her tone brisk even though her hug when she arrived had been sympathetic. “Now you have to deal with it.”
    “You’re a big help.”
    “I’m a big help, too,” her son said right behind her.
    Rebecca had been so wrapped in apprehension and misery, she hadn’t heard Malcolm come down the hall pulling hissmall blue suitcase, a miniature of the kind adults hauled through airports.
    Steadying herself, she bent to hug him. “I know you can be.” Wrinkling her nose, she said, “Do you really need that much stuff?”
    “Last time I went, Aunt Nomi got tired of Chutes ’N Ladders. So I brought lots of games this time,” he explained.
    Behind Rebecca, Naomi choked, then recovered herself quickly. “Gee, that’s great. You ready to hit the road, kiddo?”
    “I don’t wanna hit the road.” He scrutinized her anxiously. “Mom says you have to drive extra careful when I’m with you. Right, Mom?”
    “Right.” She pretended to skewer Naomi with a stare. “Five miles below the speed limit the entire way.”
    Since her friend lived no more than a mile away and the drive didn’t require her to get onto the Cabrillo Highway at all, Naomi wouldn’t be driving over thirty-five miles per hour. But Rebecca wasn’t about to stint when Malcolm needed reassurance. Tonight, she guessed he’d picked up on her tension.
    “Cross my heart.” Naomi grinned at Malcolm, her freckled face alight. “Whatd’ya say? Shall we go have fun?”
    “Yeah!” He hugged his mother hard, but hesitated on the threshold. “Unless Mom’ll miss me too much.”
    “I have a grown-up thing I have to do tonight,” she told him. “But I promise I’ll pick you up by nine.”
    Comforted, he was willing to go. Rebecca followed them to the door and watched them walk to the car. Malcolm, voice high and excited, told Naomi how his bedtimewas usually eight. But Mom was letting him stay up real late tonight.
    If only he knew, she thought, heart aching.
    He will know. Soon, I’ll have to tell him.
    She made herself shut the front door and leaned back against it. Wonderful. Now she was left alone to pace and imagine the worst until Daniel showed up.
    The worst? Hadn’t it already happened? He’d seen Malcolm. He was a man who would want what was his, and no judge would need DNA testing to confirm Malcolm was Daniel’s son.
    A firm knock on the door she leaned against made her gasp and spring away from it. Hand pressed to her mouth, she fought for composure.
    Had he been parked down the street, watching as Naomi took Malcolm away?
    Probably. She had to get a grip. She made herself close her eyes and take several slow, deep breaths. There, that was better. She could handle this. Him. She didn’t know how, but she wasn’t letting him steal her son.
    A second, louder knock vibrated the door. She opened it and said, “Hello, Daniel.”
    The anger she had expected made his face hard. For just a second, she let herself assess him as she hadn’t been able to that day at the restaurant. His hair was shorter than she remembered it, his shoulders broader, more heavily muscled. He was dressed as if he might have gone out to dinner with friends, in slacks and a long-sleeved blue shirt that she guessed was silk. He always had dressed well when he wasn’t on a work site. He carried those clothes well, too. Rebecca had become used to other women looking whenever she was out with him.
    Without saying anything, Daniel stepped past her into the small living room, immediately shrinking it with his mere presence and making her self-conscious.
    She crossed her arms in self-defense, seeing her home through his eyes.