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expecting yourself to think rationally or normally for a while yet.”
    â€œMaybe. But I still knew. Somehow. That you weren’t going to hurt me. That this wasn’t about your wanting something from me.” She leaned forward. “Maguire, how’s Tommy?”
    â€œGood. He’s in Seattle. I petitioned the court for custody after my dad died, but as I mentioned, Gerald and I had issues. Dad did a good job of financially protecting him, but that’s the best I can say. I see him at least twice a month, and sometimes he stays with me for weeks at a time…”
    â€œSo who is he with?”
    â€œAs odd as it sounds…with Jay’s ex-wife. One of Jay’s ex-wives. Shannon. The one thing Tommy needed that no amount of money could give him was a plain old mom. The nurturing of a mom, the warmth of a mom, the parenting relationship of a mom. He’scrazy about Shannon. So it isn’t a blood tie, but probably that’s best. The Cochrans aren’t exactly famous for their maternal or paternal judgment.”
    â€œSo she volunteered for this? She’s good with—”
    From nowhere, in that quiet night, over the sparks of fire and zesty scent of pine, she suddenly heard a sound. A phone. A cell phone. Nothing more than that…but she instinctively responded as if she’d heard a rifle shot. She curled up, froze, covered her head.
    â€œCarolina, it’s okay, it’s okay…I’ll turn it off. Hell. I forgot I even had it on me…”
    But there seemed to be an invisible mute button in her head that was punched hard. She stopped hearing the phone. His voice. The crackle of fire. It was gone again. Her whole sense of hearing.
    She was back in that closet of silence, where no sound seemed to penetrate and nothing got through. She could feel herself shaking, a deep trembling from her fingertips to her lips. Her heart started pounding, pounding, as if she’d been running for her life and just had no breath left, nowhere to hide, nowhere to go.
    She saw Maguire leaning over her, saw his mouth move. Was fairly positive his lips framed a mighty annoyed swearword. But that was all she could figure out for some time…
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    Within an hour of Henry’s arrival, Maguire had the central dining table spread out with contracts, correspondence and various legal documents that supposedly required his immediate attention.
    When Henry got in, he took one look at his boss’s face and headed silently for the refrigerator. After inhaling every lunch food in sight, he’d poured a coffee, located himself against the counter and was being silent as a tomb. Possibly he’d worked for Maguire long enough to sense when his boss was crabbier than a bear with a sliver.
    Maguire hadn’t slept. He couldn’t imagine sleeping in the near future.
    This whole plan wasn’t working. Well. Actually, it’d been working really well until Carolina heard the damn cell phone last night.
    That she’d lost her hearing again wasn’t the frazzler. Two different doctors had told him that could happen, and was even likely to happen. She had to be completely removed from stress for a serious stretch of time. The phone was a trigger for her.
    She’d get her hearing back. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was him. Instead of seeing her as a responsibility—a job, something he had to do—he kept feeling a pull toward those heart-big blue eyes. He touched her or tucked an arm around her, andjust like that, he was harder than a teenage boy. That tangle of sizzle and rush happened every damn time they were in the same room.
    He needed her to trust him. Which meant he had to earn that trust. And he sure as hell couldn’t do that if she was afraid he was going to jump her.
    Which, of course, he wasn’t.
    It was a matter of her never guessing that was even a remote possibility in his head.
    â€œWhere is she?” Henry risked asking