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appear, just so I wouldn’t have to go on living without him! Cross my heart and hope to die!”
    Jenna’s face had turned red. As if seeking external help, she followed with her eyes a silver car that was just passing us by. If the driver wondered why our car was stopped in the middle of the road, it certainly didn’t faze him.
    “In the last few weeks of his life, Daniel did everything to turn that house into our home. Every room in it is full of his love for us!” Tenderly, I ran my hands over my belly. “That house and this baby are the only things left of him. And you want me to give the house up?”
    Crap! Tears were welling up again, and I wondered when they would ever dry up, given how much I had been crying lately.
    “It’s all right, Piper. Really, it’s all right.”
    Jenna pressed herself against me, trying to comfort me, and her voluptuous breasts collided with my belly. This made us both giggle and I felt better, even though my throat was still tight from weeping.
    “You are the boss, okay?” she said. “I support you in everything you do, sweetie. You know that, right?”
    I nodded. “Sure.”
    After another embrace I started the engine again and slowly drove the final section of the road, deep in thought.
    In the rearview mirror, the November sun was low on the horizon and its rays reflected off the water to my left. When I saw my own reflection, I cringed. In contrast with Jenna’s perfectly drawn eyeliner and bright, full lips, I looked like a zombie, what with my matted mass of hair, a zit on my chin, and puffy eyes from constant crying.
    Maybe it’s not just the house that needs a fresh coat of paint , I thought.
    “Holy moley, Piper, who the hell is that ?” Jenna asked, straining her neck to see. I looked into the rearview mirror again and shrugged my shoulders. We had just passed the house next door to Daniel’s and mine, which used to be deserted. A man was unloading the trunk of the silver car in the driveway, bending down to some boxes on the ground in front of him.
    “Don’t know him. Maybe a contractor?” I suggested. That house had recently been sold, too.
    “Jesus, Piper, that’s the kind of guy you need to stay up-to-date on!”
    She pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and turned around in her seat as I pulled into my own driveway. “Do you think he needs help?”
    I shook my head. Jenna was unbelievable! “Lord, throw yourself at him, why don’t you?”
    I got out and looked across the front yard at the stranger’s car.
    He really didn’t seem to need help because he was carrying the last of his boxes into the house. He closed the door behind him with a thud.
    Jenna jumped out of the car and sprinted over to my side.
    “Quick, open the door before he can see me in this outfit.”
    She grabbed the basket with our go-cups of coffee and pulled me behind her toward the house. Her “outfit” was a pair of perfectly normal blue jeans and a low-cut V-neck shirt in dusky pink. She looked terrific—especially compared to me.
    “I wonder what Frank would say if he could hear you right now?” I asked and received a venomous glare in return.
    She and Frank, the owner of Franky’s Little Bakery, had a thing going on, and it had been going on for a while. Only, what that thing was, nobody really knew for sure. Not even her. It was too insubstantial to call it an on-again, off-again relationship, but it wasn’t something you could ignore.
    “Oh, Frank!” Jenna ran her fingers through her hair in a theatrical gesture. “He throws himself at every skirt that comes through his door—Italian style!”
    “And so you’re giving him a taste of his own medicine?”
    She gave a dismissive wave of her hand.
    “No, of course not! But you have to admit, that guy back there was hot !”
    “I didn’t really look at him, so let’s just say I believe you. Now, can we get to work?”
    I let my eyes wander over the patchy walls. Daniel had spackled all the holes the previous