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hadn’t meant anytime soon…or had she? Kids had always been one of the things she had hoped to have but never with a specific man in mind. Until now. As she watched and listened to Simon speak so animatedly to a little girl who loved him like she loved her daddy, Katy realized no matter how long she was with Simon, Amanda would always be a part of their lives. Good or bad, she was Olivia’s mother and they were a package deal.
    “I want to see you too, pumpkin,” he softly said. “How about if I pick you up from school tomorrow and we have lunch at CoCo’s?”
    Delighted squeals erupted from the phone. Simon grinned at Katy. She got all gooey inside when he said, “I have a friend I want you meet. You’ll like her as much as I do.”
    A split second later, Amanda’s shrill voice blasted from his cell phone, “Absolutely not! I forbid you to bring that woman anywhere near, Olivia!”
    Gentle Simon morphed instantly into Don’t-Fuck-With-Me Man. “Go there with me, Amanda, and I’ll sic Veronica on you.”
    “You wouldn’t dare!”
    “Try me.” Simon stood and walked into the living room. “I promised Livy I’d pick her up from school tomorrow, and that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll bring her by HQ at 4 when you get off.”
    HQ?
    She must have acquiesced because Simon said, “Thank you.” He hung up and tossed his phone onto the sofa. For a long moment he stood rigidly still, staring out the window at the setting sun.
    “It’s Morse code,” he said.
    “What?” Katy said standing up. She wanted to know what Amanda had said and what HQ was.
    Simon turned around and strode toward her. “The cypher is in Morse code.”
    “Slow down, cowboy, first tell me what’s going on tomorrow.”
    “I’m taking a half day off, and picking my niece up from school at one, taking her out to lunch at her favorite place and then probably taking her shopping for more dolls.”
    “That sounds like a lovely day.” And Katy would love to join them.
    “I’d like you to come with me, Kat, and meet the other woman in my life.”
    Katy smiled so big her cheeks hurt. “I’d love to.”
    “Good. Now, let’s see about cracking duffus’s Morse code texts.”
    As they sat back down at the kitchen table, Katy asked, “What’s HQ?”
    “Headquarters.”
    “Like in your police headquarters?”
    Simon looked up from the laptop screen. “Yes, Amanda is the county’s task force liaison between other county, state and federal agencies.”
    Jealousy dug its nasty claws into her. So Amanda knew the ins and outs of Simon’s job, and was probably considered one of the ‘guys,’ while she, Katy was a complete outsider.
    “So she’s not only your ex-lover and your sister-in-law, but she’s also a coworker.”
    Simon’s jaw tightened. “Yes.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Because it’s irrelevant to how I feel about you.”
    “But what if—”
    “—things were reversed?” he abruptly interrupted. “Yeah, it would bug me. No, it would piss me the hell off, but then I’d have to get over it and trust you when you say that you’re over it.” He leaned into her. “Because if I kept obsessing about you working with an old flame who wanted back into your panties, it would drive me crazy and fuck up what I had with you because you would get tired of reassuring me that I had nothing to worry about.”
    Katy’s lips parted as she was about to throw a sarcastic rejoinder at him but she bit her tongue. He was right of course. And she felt foolish. Instead she looked at the laptop screen and said, “Morse code is too archaic—too simple. Evan’s self-absorbed brain would have made it much more complicated.”
    “Morse code may be archaic but it’s not dead. You’d be surprised how much it’s still used today.”
    “Do you know it?”
    “Damn straight. My dad used to tap out our chores for the day in code on the table with a spoon to me and my brother every morning. We had to decipher what he