"But you're not taken care of." Guy leaned forward, earnest and patronizing. "You can't take care of yourself, Nina. You never have. You need someone to look after you. That's why I kept up the insurance after the divorce. I knew you wouldn't think to get any. See, I'm still taking care of you. You need me."

He looked very smug as he spoke, and Nina repressed the urge to throw something heavy at him.

It wasn't his fault he was convinced she couldn't exist without him. She'd spent a good part of their marriage convinced of the same thing. She felt sad for him suddenly, for the boy she'd married so long ago and laughed with so long ago and made love with so long ago, a boy who'd worked night and day until he'd grown up to be a successful suit without a sense of humor. That was one of the many good things about Alex; no matter how successful he became, he'd never lose his ability to laugh.

Poor Guy.

She shook her head at him. "I did get insurance through Howard Press, Guy. I'm covered. I appreciate it, but I'm covered. And I can take care of myself perfectly well. In fact, I have ever since the divorce. I like taking care of myself."

"Yes, I'm sure you do," Guy said, obviously not listening to a word she'd said. "And now that you've proved that to yourself, I think it's time we talked."

Nina gave up on tact. "We have nothing to talk about, Guy. We're divorced. We're not supposed to talk."

Guy looked deep into her eyes. "I think we could make it work again, Nina."

Nina gaped at him. "What?"

"I was wrong, I know that." Guy looked honestly guilty and honestly miserable. "I had a midlife crisis, and you got fed up and left, and I understand that I wasn't paying enough attention to you. I nearly ruined everything, I understand that. But I'm over that now, and I think we could make it work this time." He leaned closer. "I've changed."

He reached across the space between then and flicked a curl off her forehead.

Nina jerked back. She'd left him because she was fed up and wanted a new life, and he'd still managed to turn the divorce into something about him. Amazing. She tried not to glare at him. "You can't mean you want us back together."

"Yes." Guy gazed into her eyes. "I didn't realize until I heard that you were hurt how much I've missed you. How much you need me to take care of you. How much I want to take care of you. And I know you've missed me, too, living in this tiny apartment with a dog, for heaven's sake." He looked at Fred with contempt.

Fred looked back at him with more contempt.

Guy gave up and turned to Nina and shook his head. "All alone. I don't like to think of you alone."

Nina closed her eyes. He thought she'd go back to him just because he asked. Well, that was Guy for you. He was ready to be married again, so she must be, too. "Look, Guy, I'm happy in this apartment. I like-"

"Living alone?" Guy finished for her. "Sleeping alone?" He smiled at her. "You liked sex too much to be happy sleeping alone now."

Nina pulled back, indignant. "What makes you think I'm sleeping alone?"

Guy shook his head. "I know you, Nina. You're not the type to have casual affairs. And let's face it, it's not easy for women of your age to meet someone new. The numbers are against you. There are more single women than men in their forties, you know."

You smug bastard, she thought, but what she said was, "He's thirty."

Guy blinked. "Who's thirty? You have a thirty-year-old lover? You're joking."

"Why?" Nina scowled at him. "You've dated younger women since we've been divorced. Compared to most of them, Alex is practically senile."

"Alex." Guy leaned back against the couch, his confidence in place again.

"Alex." Nina nodded. "He's a doctor. A resident at Riverbend General."

"This is the kid you told me about, the one who lives downstairs, right?" Guy said. "You're sleeping with your thirty-year-old neighbor." He shook his head again. "Not you, Nina. You're a lovely woman, but you look your age. And you know how people would talk. You'd never do anything that humiliating."

Over by the window, Fred whined and scratched at the screen. "Excuse me," Nina said with exaggerated dignity and went to let him out before she picked up a knife and eviscerated her ex-husband.

Humiliating, she fumed as she unlatched the screen. Well, that was just fine. It was liberating for him to screw around with twenty-somethings, but it would be humiliating for her to make love with-

Unbidden, the thought of making love with Alex leaped into her mind, and she stopped for a moment.

It wasn't unfamiliar after three months of dreaming about him, going hot whenever he was near her, all but leaping on him every time he appeared in her doorway, but for the first time it seemed feasible, something she might actually do. Seeing Alex in the ER the night before had jarred her ideas about him considerably. His hands had been so sure as he'd stitched her up, and he'd been so focused, so controlled. She thought of his hands again, and then she thought about them on her, unbuttoning her blouse, unhooking her bra…

And then she thought of her body, softened with age, everything lower than it used to be, lower than Alex was accustomed to, Alex who dated twenty-somethings with silicone embellishments. Even if he was interested in her, he'd only seen her clothed. She could hide a lot of flaws with clothing. But naked…

Guy was right. She looked her age.

"Nina?" Guy called to her, impatient, and she remembered his "humiliating" crack.

So, all right, maybe making love with Alex wasn't something she could do, but Guy didn't need to know that. It would be great if Alex would drop by and flirt with her. Okay, that was juvenile of her, but it would be great. Just long enough to make Guy wonder.

Fred whined again, and on an impulse, Nina grabbed a pen from the table and wrote "Help!" on his collar. "Go see Alex," she whispered into his ear, and then she slid the screen out of the window.

"Alex," she whispered again as Fred tensed himself for his leap. "Alex."

Then Fred jumped, and Guy moved off the couch and over to a chair by the window to join her while she waited for Fred to come back.

Twenty minutes later, Guy was presenting another logical reason why they should reconcile, and Nina was getting ready to go down the fire escape to look for Fred the Unreliable. If Fred had been Lassie, Timmy would still be in the well, growing gills.

"I don't know where he got to," she said, peering out the window. "He hasn't done this since the first day I got him."

"Will you forget that damn dog!" Guy scowled at her. "I'm telling you, I think if we saw a counselor, we could-" The pounding on the door stopped him in mid-sentence, and he turned, his scowl changing to a glare. "What the hell-"

"Nina?" Alex's voice through the door was frantic. "Nina, open up. Fred's collar…"

Nina ran to the door, threw it open and grabbed him before he could say anything else. "Alex! Darling!"

Alex stood in the doorway in Daffy Duck shorts and a white T-shirt that was on backward and inside out with the label sticking out like a flag under his chin. He blinked at her. "Darling?"

"Daffy Duck?" Nina said, looking down.

"Darling?" Alex repeated. "What's going on? Fred's collar-"

"Darling!" Nina said again and threw her arms around him, planting a quick, clumsy kiss on his parted lips to shut him up as she tripped against him. "I was just telling Guy about us."

"About us." Alex's arms had gone around her when she'd thrown herself at him, and he looked down at her now and shook his head. "You told Guy about us. Well, I hope poor old Guy took it well."

Alex's arms felt great around her, but it was hard to think with him pulling her close. What were they talking about? Oh, right, Guy. Guy who was still there. Nina began to turn back to her ex-husband.

"Well, actually, he's still-"

"Because I'm not giving this up," Alex finished and kissed her.

Nina froze for a moment when his mouth touched hers and his arms pulled her tight against him. She made a tiny sound and then her brain shorted out, and there was a rushing in her ears, but mostly there was just Alex, everywhere, his body against hers, his mouth on hers, everything about him wiping out reality. He pulled her closer, and she tried not to moan at the ache in her breasts as they squashed against his chest, and then he slipped his tongue into her mouth, and shut down all her thoughts and her knees went away. She grabbed at his shoulders and closed her eyes, and all there was in the world was the lush heat of his mouth on hers and the glow that pulsed from her solar plexus because he was pressed against her.

"Oh, God," she breathed when he moved his lips off hers, nibbling his way across her cheek to her ear.

"He doesn't look like he believes us," Alex whispered in her ear, and the tickle of his breath made her shudder against him. "I think we're going to have to have sex on the couch to convince him." He began to pull her toward the couch, and Nina was so blasted with lust for him she would have followed him anywhere, but Guy cleared his throat.

"Oh, you're here." Alex peered toward the window at Guy. "Sorry. Thought we were alone."

"Nina and I were discussing our reconciliation. Weren't we, Nina?" Guy's voice demanded an answer, but Nina leaned against Alex's chest, clutching him to her, still mindless from his kiss, and said, "What?"

Alex grinned down at her and tightened his arm around her, and she felt the heat flare again and breathed harder. Stop this, she told herself and turned her head to look at Guy. Looking at Guy was usually a complete turnoff, so that should help her get her mind back.