Steve arranged it all.After arranging for a garage to pick up Steve's car and for a rental car, they picked up the boys and Emma's parents. They boarded a plane for Florida three hours later. Her mother was a little concerned by the rush, but was thrilled for the chance to get out of town. It had been such a long winter, she kept telling Emma on the ride to the airport. They would stay at a resort down there near Universal Studios in Orlando. The boys had wanted to go back there since a trip they made as a family two years ago. A trip Steve had abandoned them to when he was called back to his office three days early.Funny how she and the boys remembered that time so differently.Instead of driving home, Steve pointed the rental car toward downtown Fort Worth."We are we going?" Emma asked."A hotel."She turned in her seat. "Do you really think that's necessary?""Someone slashed the tires on my car, Emma. In the middle of downtown." He glanced at her. "Someone ran you off the

It was a slow, gentle kiss. But it touched her in places that had forgotten what it felt like to with the one she loved.She stepped into him, felt the tip of his tongue just brush against her bottom lip. She opened to him, and was rewarded with a sigh of such power that she could feel it as though it had issued from her own lungs, her own lips.She ran her hand slowly over his chest, could feel his heart pounding against her fingers. His hand moved from her jaw to the back of her head, buried its fingers in her hair to pull her closer, always closer. And then he buried himself inside of her, moaning against her lips with more pleasure than she had thought possible from such a simple touch.Her breath stuttered in her chest as he ran his hand over her back, slipped his palm over the curve of her hip, the roundness of her bottom. He pulled her to him until she could feel his need hard against her hip. She slid her hand around his back, drawing him so close that there was nothing but

She dialed Jen's cell number as she navigated the still dense late evening traffic on the interstate just outside of Denton. Jen answered on the first ring."Steve, I've been trying to get through to you all day.""It's Emma, Jen.""Oh." There was a long silence on the other end. And then, as though a switch had been flipped, her voice filled with concern and caring. "Is everything okay, sweetie?""Fine," Emma lied. "I wanted to apologize for the way I was with you the other day.""Don't worry about it. I understand.""Do you?""Losing Tommy like that must have been difficult.""It was. Especially the way he died.""Suicide, right?" Jen asked, an undercurrent of cruelty in her voice. "Such a pity."Emma maneuvered the car around a curve, nearly dropping the phone as she tried to hold it in the crook of her shoulder."Where are you?" Jen asked. "I went by the house earlier, but there was no one home.""We took the kids to the airport." Emma grabbed the phone with her right h