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picked up in Vegas before she’d rushed home that year. We didn’t think they had any value. Certainly not that they connected us to the Fortunes.”
    â€œBut when Anthony showed up?”
    â€œRoss saw the medallion and remembered them. Of course the baby wasn’t Frannie’s and Ross actually knew where his medallion was, so he wasn’t ever in the running for Anthony’s dad. But I couldn’t find mine and neither could Coop—”
    â€œWhich initially meant that either of you could have been Anthony’s father.”
    â€œThat’s how it seemed, yeah.”
    â€œAnd for you both there were multiple possibilities for women who could have come across your medallion and taken it?”
    He had the good grace to smile sheepishly over his beer. “Anyone could have come across the medallions and taken them. But given that there was an almost-newborn with it strung around him, it was a good bet that a woman one of us had been involved with had taken it. About the same time the DNA results came back that cleared me, I found my medallion. I’m keeping it safer now. Coop got his back with Anthony, but when Uncle William saw it he seemed to recognize it and got agitated. He said it was his, so Coop let him keep it. Who knows, that might help get his memory to come back, too.”
    â€œI hope something does,” Jessie said as the waitress returned to take their dinner order.
    They both glanced quickly at the menu and ignored the recommendation of ribs, both choosing pulled pork sandwiches instead.
    When the waitress had taken the menus and left, Flint settled back in his chair, leveled dark eyes on her and apparently took his turn at making small talk. “So tell me about yourself. Do you work?”
    â€œHa! You mean other than helping Kelsey get her house remodeled and decorated, wrangling four kids, doing a gazillion loads of laundry a week, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, driving car pool to a dozen different activities—”
    He laughed. “I didn’t mean to say you don’t do plenty of work. I just meant—do you have a job on top of all that? You said you and your husband had worked at the same construction company.”
    â€œI couldn’t go on working there after the accident,” she confessed quietly. “There was life insurance on Pete and our mortgage was paid off with a death benefit rider on the house insurance, plus there was a settlement from the company, so I have some financial cushion. The first year after losing Pete it took everything I had just to get myself out of bed in the morning, just to take care of the kids—”
    â€œI’m sure,” Flint said sympathetically.
    â€œBut I do still have four kids to keep going, to hopefully send to college, so last year I started temping in the school district as a secretary. I liked working with the kids, the teachers and the principals were all great—there’s sort of a community feel to working in a school that was really nice. The pay isn’t wonderful, but I’ve applied for a full-time position next year because it would be a way to make a living without dipping into the nest egg too much, and it would give me hours and vacations similar to what the kids will have when they’re all in school with Ella.”
    Their food arrived, but beyond thanking the waitress, Flint’s attention remained on Jessie. “You’ve applied for a full-time job but you don’t know if you got it?”
    â€œNot yet—it’s summer vacation. I was told not to expect to hear anything until July or even the first of August—just before the principals go back for the next year.”
    They tasted their sandwiches and decided Kelsey and Coop had been right about the food. Then, as they ate, Flint returned to the subject of her working.
    â€œWill you put Braden, Bethany and Adam in day care until they start?”
    Jessie couldn’t