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preceded her. She also knew that he’d never given Jennifer any play since the divorce, but that didn’t make it easier to deal with the psycho ex.
    â€œYour stroller is adorable, with those little green elephants on it,” Jennifer cooed, as if she were talking to a newborn. “Chelsea isn’t looking so good, but she never was big on fashion. It got me thinking, though. I’m sorry we never had a baby.”
    Leo winced. Thank God that never happened.
    â€œIt would have been a little bit of both of us.” Her voice was low and seductive now. “A little bit of you for me to hold on to forever.”
    A way for you to tighten the noose around my neck.
    â€œIt wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “We weren’t a good couple, Jen.”
    â€œBut don’t you ever think about what would have happened if I didn’t lose that baby?”
    His hands gripped the wheel, white-knuckled. Jennifer had gotten pregnant once, but she had miscarried in the first few weeks. Thank God. A kid between them would have made it even harder to extract her from his life, and they wouldn’t have done the kid any service, being split up and fighting whenever they saw each other.
    â€œYou’ve got to live in the here and now,” he said. “And I’ve got to go.”
    â€œOkay, but I’ll see you around. Now that I’m back in town we just might run into each other.”
    He heard the threat in her singsong voice. “Don’t plan anything, Jen. I’m counting on you to give us some space.”
    â€œIt could be a coincidence!”
    â€œGood-bye, Jen.”
    â€œSee you around.”
    Leo cut the connection, vowing not to let Jennifer ruin his good mood and the evening ahead. He was going on a date with his wife and best friend, and Jen wasn’t going to spoil their evening together. He would worry about her tomorrow or next week . . . or some random day when she leaped out in front of him at the hardware store with a slightly mad gleam in her eyes.
    Jennifer was a problem he could handle later.

Chapter 7
    I t was all so random.
    The day had dawned full of hope, then plunged so low she felt sure it would be the last day of her life. Then, hours later, the skies had opened up and served Chelsea a slice of blue heaven. In the purple light of dusk she found herself dining with her husband, surrounded by soft music and laughter and the smell of warm bread.
    Seated beside Leo in a booth with a view of the dancing flames in the restaurant’s gas fireplace, Chelsea allowed herself to fantasize that they were vacationing at a mountain lodge—just the two of them. He looked so handsome—like a clean-cut lumberjack in a flannel shirt—and she actually felt like a woman again in a royal-blue V-neck sweater that brought out the color of her eyes.
    While they’d waited for a table, she caught a glimpse of an elegant woman in the window with shiny dark hair and sumptuous curves that couldn’t be masked by a black jacket. When she turned her head and the woman turned at the same time, she realized it was her.
    So she didn’t look as bad as she felt. She had nodded at her reflection—a small nudge of encouragement.
    They had left Annie in the care of a professional baby nurse, whom Leo had found through an agency two months ago. Helen Rosekind was crazy expensive, but capable and tidy. “She seems to like Annabelle,” Leo had said as they drove off.
    â€œBaby nurses have to act that way,” Chelsea had countered.
    â€œWell, Annie likes her,” he had said.
    Annie likes everyone, except her own mother, Chelsea had thought, but she let it drop. The farther their car had traveled from the house and the baby, the lighter she had begun to feel.
    The spell was lifting. The short break was giving her room to breathe.
    The waiter arrived with their appetizers—roasted-pepper tapas and crab cakes—and the cloak of doom