Buried in dogs, Simon twisted enough to look at Brad. “Is it yours? When’d you get him? What’s his name?”

“Not mine. He’s just been liberated. And he doesn’t have one.”

“Then who—” He went very still, and those long gold eyes fixed on his mother’s.

“He’s yours, baby.”

In that moment she knew the puppy could chew through her house like a plague of termites and she would never regret it. She would never forget that flash of stunned joy on her little boy’s face.

“To keep?” Simon’s voice shook as he managed to get to his knees. “I can keep him?”

“I think he’s counting on it.” She walked over to kneel down and ruffle the pup’s cloud-soft fur. “You’re going to have to be very responsible, and make sure he’s fed right and taught, and loved. Puppies are a lot of work. He’s going to depend on you.”

“Mom.” Too overcome to be embarrassed that Brad looked on, Simon threw his arms around his mother and buried his face against her shoulder. “I’ll take good care of him. I promise. Thanks, Mom. I love you more than anything, ever.”

“I love you more than anything, ever.” She answered his fierce hug with one of her own, then managed a watery laugh when both dogs tried to wiggle between them. “I think Moe’s going to like having a friend.”

“It’s just like a big family.” Simon lifted the puppy high.

The newcomer expressed his delight by peeing on Simon’s knee.

Chapter Sixteen

ZOE rubbed the exfoliating cream over Dana’s calf and grinned as her friend let out a long, heartfelt moan.

“I really appreciate the two of you giving up your Sunday afternoon to be my guinea pigs.”

This time Dana grunted. Malory sat on a stool in the treatment room and rubbed her fingers over her newly scrubbed and polished skin. “I can’t get over how good it feels.”

“I wasn’t worried about the results—these products are great. But I want to be sure the whole experience works.”

“Works for me,” said Dana’s slurred and muffled voice.

Zoe glanced around, scanning the shelves of products, the glowing candles, the neat stack of mint-green towels on the counter, the clear crystal she’d hung from the ceiling over the padded table.

It was, she thought, exactly right.

“Of course, when we’re doing this for real there won’t be three people in here talking. You want us to be quiet, Dana?”

“You don’t even exist in my little world. That stuff smells as good as it feels.”

“It’s good we’re doing this.” Malory sipped some of the lemon water Zoe had chilled in a squat glass pitcher. “If we’re going to open on Friday, we want to work out as many kinks as possible, in all three areas.”

Swallowing hard, she pressed a hand to her belly. “God, we’re going to open on Friday. Even if it is a kind of dry run for the grand opening on December first, it’s happening.”

“Big day, all around,” Zoe said.

“You’re going to find the key.” Malory touched her shoulder. “I know it.”

The connection—Malory’s hand on her, hers on Dana—bolstered her. “That’s another reason I wanted to do this today. I needed some time with just the three of us.”

She glanced up at the crystal again. It certainly seemed she’d become a bit more mystical-minded over the last few months. “To recharge my energy. My girl power.”

“Rah-rah,” Dana cheered and made Zoe laugh.

“With what happened yesterday I feel more confident, but this little voice keeps sneaking in asking me why the hell I think I can do this.”

“Is it Zoe’s voice,” Dana asked her, “or Kane’s?”

“It’s Zoe’s, which makes it more irritating. Yesterday, there was this rush of excitement, of energy, when I realized what was going on, that I knew what it was and could control it. But I need to move it from there.”

“You went back to a beginning, and an ending.” Curious, Malory examined the bottles and tubes neatly lined up on Zoe’s shelves. “And with the three of us here today, we’re going back to basics. Both Dana and I had periods during our part of this when we felt discouraged and lost.”

“Check,” Dana confirmed. “And when we went off on tangents that dead-ended. Or seemed to.”

“Seemed to.” Turning back, Malory nodded. “But without those tangents would we have gotten on the right track? I don’t think so. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot,” she added, leaning back on the counter. “A quest isn’t linear, it isn’t straightforward. It circles and it winds and overlaps. But every step, every piece, has its place. Let’s take yours.”

“Dana has to rinse off.”

“Then hold that thought.” Wrapped in the bath sheet Zoe provided, Dana headed for the shower.

“You’ve got some ideas.” Zoe walked over to rinse her hands. “I can see it.”

“I do, actually. It might be easier for me to see, well, the forest for the trees, because I’m not in it the way you are. And the experience I had in the attic here was similar to what happened to you yesterday. In that I knew what was going on, and controlled it. And part of me, a little part, wanted to stay in that illusion and let the rest go.”

Zoe looked back, saw the sympathy, the understanding on Malory’s face. The tension in her shoulders dissolved. “I really needed to hear that. So much. I didn’t want James, Mal, not really, but part of me remembered how much I had wanted him.”

“I know. I know exactly.”

She could, Zoe thought. She and Dana were the only ones who really could. “Part of me felt that same way, had that same yearning. And it would’ve been so easy to drift back there and believe everything would turn out differently.”

“But you didn’t drift back.”

“No.” She began changing the cover on the treatment table, adjusting the pad, smoothing the cotton. “Everything but that one little part knew I didn’t want it to turn out differently. I didn’t really want the boy who couldn’t stand by me or his own child. But I had to remember him, really remember him, and what I felt for him. So I could say good-bye.”