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such
funny faces," she explained doubtfully.
    Joe looked abashed, a
little boy caught red-handed playing doctor with the girl next door. Mattie was
intrigued.
    "Look at that little
girl!" he burst out defensively, throwing out a hand to indicate a
grave-faced three-year-old on the edge of the sand pit.
    Mattie looked. The child
was, indeed, standing away from the rest of the lively crowd of children in the
park. Her eyes were focused on Joe with the sad solemnity that only a child can
produce.
    Mattie understood at once.
"Trying to coax a smile, were you?"
    Joe grinned disarmingly.
"Without drawing undue attention to myself, yes."
    Mattie nodded with calm
authority. "What's called for here is subtlety," she informed him
seriously.
    Joe watched with great
interest as Mattie—subtly— slipped her thumbs into her ears and waved her
fingers wildly beside her head.
    Every child in the sand
pit broke up. The grave-faced girl was rolling on the ground with hilarity and
Joe was laughing appreciatively.
    "Mattie, that
was—"
    "Subtle," Mattie
finished for him succinctly.
    Joe shook his head
wonderingly. "You're so good with kids!"
    "Some people would be
unkind enough to say that's because I'm on the same mental level with
them," Mattie returned wryly.
    Joe grinned. "You're
going to be such a good mother."
    Mattie froze. She stopped
walking. She stopped smiling. Joe jerked to a halt, studying her stiff face
questioningly.
    "No, I won't."
The words were delivered in a grim, cold voice.
    "Mattie?" Joe
was concerned and reached for her instinctively, but Mattie shrank from his
hand.
    "I won't be a good
mother. I won't be any kind of mother. I will never have children."
    "But
sweetheart—"
    Mattie broke in roughly,
her voice muffled. "Never, do you understand?"
    Joe believed he did, and
his eyes were dark as he absorbed her pain. For some reason, he thought, Mattie
was incapable of having children. What must that knowledge have done to her? he
wondered achingly. Did she think it changed the person she was? Did she think
it would change the way he felt for her? Oh lady, he thought desparingly, is
this one of the demons you fight alone?
    Aloud he only said,
"Yes, I understand. No children. Never."
    Mattie nodded once,
tightly controlled, and said no more.
    And then there were the
times when Joe doubted his own sanity, thanks to the crazy, cock-eyed teachings
of Mattie Grey....
    "Mattie, the blood is
rushing to my head!"
    "That's nice."
Mattie was distracted, staring at her watch.
    Joe was silent for a
moment, forbearing. Then he said, "Do we have to do it in this
position?"
    Mattie regarded him
patiently. "Don't be a baby. How else are we going to capture the full
glory—"
    "Ugh."
    "Of the flat-billed
platypus in his natural habitat?"
    "I don't even think
there are any flat-billed platypuses in Texas, sweetheart," Joe
protested mildly.
    "Not if all Texans
are as noisy as you," Mattie agreed promptly.
    "And why do we have
to hang upside down on this tree branch?"
    "Bats do it,"
Mattie pointed out with a total lack of logic.
    "Bats have rabies,
too," Joe told her blandly. "Is catching that next on our list of
things to do?"
    Mattie regarded him
solemnly, then sneaked another surreptitious glance at her watch.
"Okay," she surrendered, extricating her tangled form from the tree and
standing on the ground beside his still-upside-down body.
    "Okay, what?"
Joe demanded suspiciously, his face bright red.
    "Okay, there aren't
any flat-billed platypuses in my backyard," Mattie clarified.
    Joe's suspicion deepened.
"Which you knew all along."
    "Let's go get some
coffee," Mattie suggested blandly.
    Joe had no choice but to
swing down from the limb and follow her departing form, berating her the entire
way to the cottage.
    "What possible reason
could you have for making me hang upside down from a tree in your backyard for
half an hour? Are you a closet sadist, or do you have a fetish for bulging
eyes, or—"
    "Happy birthday,
Joe!"
    Joe's mouth