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heart.”
    “A heart?”
    “Yes, Kel, a heart,” Alex said. “Didn't exactly work out.”
    “Uh oh,” Kelly said. “What did you do?”
    “It was crooked.”
    “Oh?”
    “So I shaved it all off.”
    “All?”
    “Bald.”
    “Adventurous,” Kelly said with a small smile.
    “I thought you told me that's what's expected now.”
    “I don't think it's exactly what I said, but it has to be an improvement on the cave woman look.”
    “Who's a cavewoman?” Aaron asked as he wandered in ahead of Jay and Thom.
    “Hey! What did I tell you about eavesdropping?”
    “You didn't tell me, you telled Thom.”
    “Well, you heard him,” Thom said.
    “No, I didn't!” Aaron whined.
    “Then, how did you know what Jay told me?” Thom asked.
    “Right now I'm telling you two to go get some dry clothes on,” Jay said.
    Alex and Kelly watched in awe as the two boys trudged up the stairs without another word.
    “Something I need to know?” Alex asked.
    “Nah,” Jay said. “I'll just go move that ladder , and I'll go and get ready for our date.”
    Alex rolled her eyes. “I'm perfectly capable of moving my own ladder,” she said.
    “And yet you didn't,” Jay said in a firm tone but with a twinkle in his eye.
    “I've been busy,” she said.
    “Okay. Fields of pineapples wait for no one, I guess,” he grinned.
    “Oh, not the farm,” Kelly said.
    “Gang up on me, why don't you,” Alex said defensively. “Anyway, I haven't touched my farm since last night, even though my vegetables are probably all rotten, and my friends have probably blocked me.”
    “Oh?” Jay asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Been busy?”
    “A little,” she said with a knowing look.
    “I'll be right back,” Kelly said, pointing to the stairs before leaving them alone to talk.
    “Close call last night,” Jay said in a low voice.
    “Too close.”
    “Yeah.”
    “You may have to pick your moments,” Alex said with a grin. “Little pitchers and all.”
    “Why you listening to Mom and Jay, Aunt Kelly?” Aaron asked.
    “I'm not, I'm um, just coming to see how you boys are doing.”
    “I'm fine,” the small boy said.
    “And your brother?”
    “Dunno.”
    “Okay. I guess he'll be out in a minute,” Kelly said distractedly.
    “Jay says listening to adult conversations is wrong,” Aaron persisted.
    “Did he?” she said. “Thanks for telling me. I'll keep that in mind.”
     
    * * *
     
    “I think maybe we should leave this conversation for later,” Alex said.
    “Yep. Big pitchers in the house as well as small ones,” Jay said, noticing the leg of Kelly's jeans at the top of the stairs.
    “Uh huh,” Alex smiled. Should she tell him later that she told Kel already? “I was wondering what I need to wear tonight,” she said in a valiant attempt to change the subject.
    Jay smiled. “We're doing Italian. So whatever you like will be fine.”
    “Okay, thanks,” Alex said happily. “I like Italian.”
    “I'll pick you up around six,” he said. He bent to give her a quick kiss and whispered in her ear, “You don't want to be late again.”
    “I'll be ready,” she stammered, the memory of the spanking the night before springing to her mind.
    “I don't think Mom's rule's gonna work with him, somehow,” Kelly said later, from a few stairs up.
    “The one about who's really in charge?”
    “Yeah. Just smile and agree and let them think they're in charge,” Kelly said with a chuckle.
    “And then do whatever the hell you want,” Alex added. Did she want that? A henpecked husband like her Dad had been? She wondered. More and more she was wondering if she wanted what Jay had to offer.
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    Alex dropped her coffee cup. There was a blood curdling scream from above them. She and Kelly took the stairs two at a time, nearly knocking each other over in the process. “Oh, God, what now?” Alex said. Her heart thumped wildly, and she held her breath as she followed the screams into Aaron's room. Through