LITMIR.BIZ

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was a whole lot different from life as a mom. At home no one was around to say “good job” for doing five loads of laundry. Or for playing house and dolls with a four-year-old, instead of paying bills.

      Or planning playdates and church outings and scheduling dentist appointments.

      Oh, she was going to keep this job as long as she could. It felt comfortable at Carnegie. Before the girls came, she used to work forty hours a week, now she hovered around twenty.

      But practically every moment she was there was regimented. The phone calls were sometimes demanding. The pace grueling—a new call came approximately every 360 seconds.

      But she was good at it. And here, she didn’t have to think about Eddie or babies or how she still had a pile of dishes in the sink and a load of laundry in the washing machine. She could objectively see how well she performed and pinpoint areas where she needed to improve.

      The job was the complete opposite of motherhood, where everything felt questionable and she constantly forgot parking places, snacks and thirty other things a day. Here, at Carnegie, she felt useful and appreciated—the complete opposite of how Eddie had started to make her feel.

      He’d never fully embraced her job, either. She knew it was because his life as a cop was so precarious. Because of that, he liked one of them to be home all the time. But she’d never agreed with that.

      It was yet another area where they’d clashed. And yet another reason she was going to wait as long as possible to tell him about the baby. He’d have plenty to say about her going off birth control—like she should have known they’d sleep together sooner or later.

      “The money’s good,” Shawn said, trying to come up with anything to push the job in Tricia’s favor. Though she’d made lots of friends at Carnegie, she and Tricia had become especially close.

      “I thought I’d like the change of pace, but I’m really thinking of either taking kids in at my house or being a nanny or something.”

      Shawn blinked. Against her will, she started imagining just how great Tricia would be with her kids. Especially when the baby came.

      “I didn’t want to tell you things weren’t working out for me here—after all, you were so nice to give me a reference.” Tricia was prevented from adding any more comments by the not-so-subtle chime on the oversize clock above them. Glaring at the timepiece, she said, “Back to the grind.”

      Grabbing her can of soda, Shawn carefully wrapped up the last of her muffin. Remembering also how Tricia was always on the lookout for a new guy, she teased, “Maybe your afternoon will be better. Who knows—you just might talk to someone tall, dark and handsome today.”

      “Doubt it. Most likely I’ll only speak to people who want me to tell them all about our airline specials and flight times and then book a flight on the Internet.” Blowing dark auburn bangs off her forehead, she added, “Not everyone falls in love on the phone here. Only you.”

      “I didn’t fall in love on the phone.”

      “Still, it was romantic,” Tricia said right before they parted ways at their cubicles. “Your story about how you and Eddie met on the phone is the best ever.”

      It had been, Shawn mused as she slid back into her rolling chair and slipped her headset on. Eddie had still been in the military and had been trying to get home.

      She’d done everything she could to help him, especially since he’d had the kind of voice that screamed alpha male. So masculine. Sure-sounding. Almost gravelly.

      Oh, he’d been so sexy.

      By the time they’d disconnected, he’d known her name, and she’d known that he’d grown up only a few hours away.

      And though she sometimes hated to remember, by the end of that phone call, she’d known she’d fallen in love.

      She still didn’t understand how that feeling could have faded away.

      Chapter Three

      “You working a double shift, Eddie?” Sal Temple called out from the other end of the community room in the police station.

      Eddie pushed E5 on the vending machine. Slowly the mechanical arm retrieved a red Gatorade. “Yeah.”

      Crossing the room, Sal fumbled in his pocket, pulled out two bucks and slipped the bills in the slot of the machine as soon as Eddie stepped away. After a pressing a few buttons, a Snickers bar free-fell to the bottom. “Didn’t you work a double shift last Thursday, too?”

      “I did.” Curious, Eddie looked a little more closely at his lieutenant. “You keeping track of me?”

      “No, just wondering why you’re working so much.”

      Eddie didn’t have a real reason, other than he hated going home to an empty place and extra money always came in handy. Especially now that he had child support and Jayne. Jayne liked nice dinners. “The money’s good,” he said.

      “It’s only good if you’re around to enjoy the stuff you can buy with it. Overtime can kill a guy, you know.” Thumping on his chest for good measure, he added, “You’ve got to watch your heart.”

      “It’s ticking just fine. Don’t worry so much.”

      “I’m just looking after you. Someone’s got to, you know.” As he neatly placed his candy bar on his stack of paperwork, Sal said, “By the way, I heard you’ve got a new girl.”

      Eddie almost choked. “Where did you hear that?”

      “The usual way, the grapevine.” Sal looked him up and down. “So, Wagner, is it true?”

      “I’m seeing someone, but it’s not serious. I wouldn’t call her my girl.”

      “Uh-huh. When did you get divorced?”

      “It was final four months ago.” Eddie closed his eyes for a moment as he heard his tone—completely defensive. “Sal, Shawn and I were separated six months before that. I’m not doing anything wrong.”

      “Still—” Sal clucked. “—it’s kind of soon for a rebound gal.” Wagging a finger, he said, “You gotta watch those women, you know. She’s probably looking for a ring. Don’t want to rush into anything.”

      Oh, these old guys, always imagining the worst! “Jayne’s not a rebound anything, and she’s certainly not looking for a ring already. She’s nice, Sal. I promise. Plus, she’s a teacher.”

      To his surprise, Sal didn’t look too impressed. “Humph.”

      “She’s educated and good with kids. She’s a dynamite person. Organized, too.” Actually, there were a lot of things to admire about her.

      “I liked Shawn. Even more, I liked you with her. I thought you two were good together. She kept you lively.”

      “I’m plenty lively now.” He didn’t want to be any livelier, anyway. Living with Shawn had been exhausting. He never knew what she was planning or what she had in mind.

      Sometimes, those spur-of-the-moment decisions stressed him out—like the time he’d come home from work to find a trio of suitcases in the kitchen. Without consulting him, she’d decided they needed to take the girls to Disney World because there was a special going on.

      Yes, they’d had fun, but the whole while he’d been wishing for just a few hours of downtime. Every time he’d tried to tell her about the rape case he’d been working on, she’d changed the subject. Like it was going to mess up their holiday.

      Jayne was the exact opposite. Calm. Serene. On time. She kept a database of all the books she read. He admired that. “You weren’t married to Shawn, Sal.”

      Eddie hated like hell to snap at his lieutenant, but honestly, did the old guy have to comment on everything in his life? Tell him exactly what he thought about things?

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