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Long-term plans probably meant an hour and a half. She thought about his offer to take her to Paris and smiled, wondering what he would have done if she’d accepted.
    â€œSorry, I never get serious in the first four days.”
    â€œI suppose you’re right,” he admitted. “Four days isn’t a lot of time. How long do you think it will take?”
    â€œTo get serious?” Lizabeth smiled. “I don’t know. I don’t mean to be insulting, but it’s nothigh on my list of priorities. I have to find myself.”
    â€œI didn’t know you were lost. Maybe you’ve been looking in the wrong places.”
    â€œEasy for you to joke about it,” Lizabeth said. “You have a secure personality. You didn’t grow up as ‘Mac Slye’s Kid.’ And you didn’t spend ten years as Paul Kane’s wife and Jason and Billy Kane’s mother. I used to buy T-shirts with my name written on them, hoping once in a while people would call me Lizabeth.”
    â€œYou’re exaggerating.”
    â€œNot by very much. I liked being a wife and mother, but when I got out on my own I realized my image had been much too closely tied to others.”
    â€œSeems to me you have a good grip on your image.”
    She studied his face, decided he meant it, and felt a rush of happiness. There were times, toward the end of her marriage, when she wasn’t sure if there was any Lizabeth left at all. It was wonderful to know she’d survived.
    â€œWell, we could be friends for a while,” she said. “We could see how it turns out.”
    â€œIt has to be tough to dissolve a marriage. How long have you been on your own?”
    â€œWe’ve been separated for 18 months. Divorced for six. It seems longer. I’ve covered a lot of ground in that two years. I look back on my marriage and I realize it was doomed from the very beginning, Paul wanted a hostess and I was in love with the idea of being in love.”

Chapter 3
    â€œMom’s home!” Jason yelled, looking out the front window. “She’s with Mr. Hallahan, and he’s helping her up the sidewalk.”
    â€œWhat’s the matter with her?” Elsie called from the kitchen. “Why does she need help?”
    â€œI dunno. She’s all wet, and she’s walking funny.”
    Elsie went to the door and watched her niece slowly make her way up the porch stairs. “Now what?”
    Matt tried to look concerned, but his mouth kept twitching with laughter. “She lost her balance and fell into a freshly poured cement driveway. We had to hose her down before the cement set, but there were a few places we missed…like her shoes and her underwear.”
    â€œI didn’t lose my balance,” Lizabeth snapped. “I was signing my initials in the wetcement, and one of your workmen snuck up behind me and got fresh.”
    Elsie shook her finger at her niece. “I told you, you gotta be careful about bending over when you’re around them construction workers.”
    Lizabeth swiped at the wet hair plastered to her face. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    Elsie looked at Matt. “Well? Is that the whole story? How come she lost her balance?”
    â€œShe lost her balance when she punched him in the nose,” Matt said, smiling broadly. It had been a terrific punch. Square on the snoot. He couldn’t have done it better himself.
    â€œNo kidding?” Elsie was obviously pleased. “That comes from her mother’s side of the family. We’re a feisty bunch. So how about this guy’s nose—did she flatten it?”
    â€œWasn’t exactly flattened,” Matt said, “but it was definitely broken.”
    â€œWow,” Jason said, “that’s so cool. Wait’ll I tell the guys. My mom broke someone’s nose!”
    â€œIt was an accident!” Lizabeth said. “I reacted without thinking, and his nose