Chapter 1

“Steve, is that really you?”

I was sitting in a food court at a mall, working on the ever-present laptop, waiting for my son and almost daughter-in-law. Even though I hadn’t heard that voice in almost fifteen years, I knew instantly who it was. Looking up, I smiled.

“No Kara, it’s someone else. What kind of a dumb statement was that?”

She flinched a little, before she noticed I was smiling, and she grinned back. “Gee, you found a sense of humor since I saw you last. Or did you buy one, moneybags? Lord knows you could afford it now.”

“I bought it. Got a good deal, too. I wanted Jimmy Fallon’s, but the tight bastard wanted way too much. And yeah, life’s been pretty good to me for the last few years.”

The smile was still there, and it brought back memories of happier times. Mentally, she shook herself. It had been almost twenty years. She should be over it now.

“Still farming?”

She had often made fun of his little hobby farm, absolutely refusing to help, but not above helping spend the money it brought to them.

“No, farming takes time, and that’s something that’s in short supply for me lately. What about you? Did the recession hurt you?”

Kara took the conversation to mean she was invited to sit, and she pulled out a chair. Damn, she had always had good legs, and even at forty-one, they still drew your attention. Never missing much, she gave me a smirk, glad she had chosen that particular dress to wear shopping. “Still a leg man, I take it. Yes, it did, a little, but I wasn’t exactly into a lot of the stuff that was happening at the time, so I came out all right. I’m doing good business now, got eight agents each in all four of my offices, and they hustle. Everybody wants the American dream, and I try my best to give it to them. What about you? If you’re looking to upgrade, I got several really nice properties, or maybe a vacation getaway? If you need a hideout, I have a really, really nice two thousand foot cabin on a hundred acres of mostly woods, with an almost fifty-acre private lake that just hit the market. I haven’t shown it yet. If I remember right, you like to fish.”

“To answer your first question, yes, and you always had the best pair I’d ever seen, with one exception. To the rest of the questions, no, I like what I got now just fine, although I might take a look at that cabin. Email some pictures to me on my business site, and we’ll talk. What are you doing in this city anyway? You’re a long way from our old stomping grounds.”

She smiled: that “I know something but you don’t’ smile,” the one that used to drive me crazy. “I’m here on business, same as you. In fact...”

That was as far as she got when she stopped, looking at the arms that were hugging me from behind, going up to the very attractive face of a young woman. I saw her watching as the girl gave me a big kiss on the cheek. A young man, Hispanic, very good looking in his own right, stood off to the side, smiling.

“Let him go,” he told the woman, her red hair falling over his fathers’ face. “You might kill him, just from the heat.”

“Oh, I think your Papa can take it. I almost wish I had met him first.”

I pulled my future daughter-in-law into my lap, tickling her, as she writhed and screamed in English and Spanish, her long legs flailing, her short skirt riding up. Stopping before she gave the old guys at the food court a heart attack, I introduced her to Kara.

“Kara, let me introduce the only woman in the world that could give you a run for your money in beauty and great legs. This is Ashley, my new daughter-in-law. Well, in five days, anyway. That handsome devil trying to stay out of the way is my son, Miguel, although he prefers to be called Mickey. Kids, this is Kara, sorry, can’t remember your last name, real estate mogul and my first wife.”