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next time you see me, I’ll be a peach.”
    “Your friend Stan is fantastic. He fixed my Pathfinder for the cost of the part. I spent a little time online last night and found out that anyone else would’ve charged me three times as much. Thank you for arranging that.”
    “My pleasure. No problem.”
    “I’m a little embarrassed at how I acted around you,” she said.“You’ll never know how much I appreciate the grass cutting, trash hauling, playing with the kids. I’m not a man hater. When men volunteered at the Zoë Institute back in Oklahoma, where I used to live, I had no trouble accepting their offerings gratefully. The Zoë Institute is a place dedicated to helping single moms—and very close to my heart. But anyway, this favor you got me from Stan—wow, you have no idea how much that means. I’m usually much more grateful. And gracious. Really.”
    “And I’m usually much more considerate about asking permission,” he said, making a face. “I guess when I do that stuff for my sisters, they’re family, and we already know each other’s limits.”
    “Well, you’re right about one thing—if we’d known each other better, I might not have gotten all freaked out about Austin going fishing with you. He loves to go fishing, actually. And I can’t take him nearly often enough. Plus, both kids want to play on ball teams this summer, so playing catch is good for them.”
    His mouth tilted in a half grin. “This is the friendliest you’ve ever been to me,” he said. “Is it because I promised never to ask you out again?”
    “It’s because I was out of line. I didn’t really know I was out of line, Clay. I’m a woman on my own with children to protect—I have to be careful. I’m sorry I—”
    He suddenly reached across the front seat of the SUV and grabbed her hand. “Don’t apologize, Dory. I should apologize. I was only thinking of myself. I want you to be cautious. You shouldn’t take chances on men you don’t know. And I should’ve realized cutting the grass a couple of times isn’t all it takes to build trust. And yes—I’d be happy to toss around the ball sometimes. But I’ll let the kids ask.”
    She laughed. “You have no idea! Brace yourself! They’ll ask and ask and ask!”
    From then on they laughed like a couple of giggly little kids, laughed till they had tears in their eyes—he from being overtired and she from the eased tension surrounding their relationship.

CHAPTER THREE
    S undays were typically catch-up days for Dory if she didn’t have to work at the grocery store. She tried to take weekends off whenever possible, because the kids weren’t in school and if she couldn’t trade off babysitting with a friend from her single moms group, it got very expensive. She could usually keep her time at the store down to weekdays, and the occasional Saturday.
    That gave her Sundays to clean house, get the laundry done and basically get the family set up for another week of work and school. It was also a good day to phone volunteers, if she had some on her list to call. And she had a little more time to look at work in progress, such as writing grants. Right now, because it was spring, she was working on the summer conference, lining up the workshops and speakers, planning the promotion and squaring away the facility they would rent. Corsica had gotten them a good deal with a local church and the adjacent buildings for the conference, but it wasn’t free.
    Sometimes, when dealing with people whose needs were the most basic kind—food, shelter—and survival was an issue, it was easy to forget the fundamental importance of workshops on building self-esteem, maintaining personal boundaries, parenting, budgeting, developing interview and job skills, and learning what is and is not healthy in relationships. But in order for these women to not only survive but thrive, the very core of their beings had to be rebuilt and reinforced. This Dory had learned from attending her own