“So, Doctor, what do you think of New York?” They were walking arm in arm down Second Avenue, back toward her house.

“I think you love it, and it loves you.”

“I think you're right.” She smiled happily. “But I happen to love you too.”

“Even though I'm not a talk show host, or a politician or a writer?”

“You're better than all that, Peter. You're real.”

He smiled at the compliment. “Thank you. But so are they.”

“It's not the same thing with them. They only touch half my life, Peter. There's another part they never come near. I've never really found anyone who understood both halves of my life before. My family life and my professional life are both important to me, and they're so diametrically different.”

“You seem to manage both.”

She smiled, and nodded. “It's not always easy though.”

“What is?” He was suddenly thinking of his daughter's reaction to his staying in New York, and he suspected that she'd make him pay for it when she saw him again. She always did.

But Mel looked at him then with a smile and they turned west on Eighty-first Street, and went back to her house to lie in bed and talk until two in the morning.

The next morning, they had brunch at the Tavern-on-the-Green, and then they went down to Greenwich Village for a street fair. There wasn't a great deal to do in New York in the summertime, but neither of them seemed to care. They just wanted to be together, and they walked for hours, talking of their pasts, their lives, their work, their children, themselves. It was as though each couldn't get enough of the other, and at five o'clock they regretfully went back to Mel's house, and made love for a last time. At seven o'clock they took a cab to the airport. And suddenly the time moved all too quickly. It seemed only moments later when they had to say good-bye and they clung to each other at the gate for their final moments.

“I'm going to miss you so much.” He looked down at her, infinitely glad he had come to New York. He sensed that it had changed the course of his whole life and he wasn't even afraid anymore. He put a finger under her chin and tipped her face up to his. “You promise, you're coming to Aspen?”

She smiled and fought back the tears she felt welling up in her throat. “We'll be there.” But she still didn't know how she'd tell the twins.

“You'd better.” He held her close and kissed her one last time before boarding the plane with a wave, and as he left, Mel felt as though he had taken her heart with him.

It was a long lonely trip back to Martha's Vineyard that night and she didn't arrive at the house in Chilmark until after midnight, and everyone was asleep. She was relieved that they were. She didn't want to talk to a soul in the world except Peter Hallam, and he was still on a plane heading west to Los Angeles.

Mel sat for a long time on the porch of the house that night, listening to the sound of the ocean, and feeling the gentle breeze on her face. There was a wonderful, peaceful feeling just being there, and she was sorry he hadn't been able to be there with her. But for now, it was just as well. They had needed to be alone. And being in Aspen with his children and hers was going to be enough of a challenge. She still hadn't decided when or how to tell the girls, but she decided the next morning at breakfast that it would be best to give them all the time she could to get used to the idea. They had never left the Vineyard in the middle of the summer before, and she knew they would find it strange. More than that, they would find it suspicious.

“Aspen?” Jessica stared at her in amazement. “Why would we be going to Aspen?”

Mel attempted to look nonchalant, but she could feel her heart beating faster. Partly because they were putting her on the spot, and partly because she was about to tell a lie. “Because it's a very exciting invitation, and we've never been there.” Raquel snorted as she went back to the kitchen for the maple syrup, and Val looked at her mother in horror.

“But we can't leave. Everything's happening here, and we don't know anybody in Aspen.”

Mel looked at the youngest twin calmly. She would be easier to convince than her sister. “Relax, Val, they have boys in Aspen too.”

“But that's different. And we know everyone here!” She looked as though she were going to cry, but Mel held firm.

“I just think it's an opportunity we shouldn't miss.” Or did she mean “I”? She felt guilty for what they didn't know.

“Why?” Jessica was watching her every move. “What's in Aspen?”

“Nothing … I mean … oh, for chrissake, Jess, stop acting like the official investigative team. It's a fabulous place, the mountains are wonderful, there are loads of kids and things to do, pack trips, horses, hiking, fishing …”

“Blyearghk!” Valerie interrupted with disgust. “I hate all that stuff.”

“It'll do you good.”

But this time Jessica intervened, ever practical. “But that means we'll miss part of the summer here. And we rented the house for both months.”

“We'll only be gone for two weeks. You'll still have six weeks here.”

“I just don't understand it.” Jessica left the table in obvious annoyance and Val burst into tears and hurried to her room.

“I won't go! It's the best summer I've ever had, and you're trying to wreck it!”

“I am not trying to—” But the door slammed before she could finish, and she looked at Raquel in obvious irritation as she cleared the table.

“It must be serious.” She shook her head wisely and Mel got up with a groan of aggravation.

“Oh, for chrissake, Raquel.”

“All right, all right. Don't tell me. But wait and see, six months from now you gonna get married. I never seen you leave the Vineyard before.”

“This will be a fabulous trip.” She was trying to convince them all, including herself, and wishing it were a little bit easier.

“I know. And what about me? Do I have to go too?” She didn't look any more thrilled than the girls.

“Why don't you take your vacation then instead of waiting until the end of the summer?”

“Sounds good to me.”

At least that was one worry behind her. Val didn't come out of her room for two hours, and then emerged, red-eyed and red-nosed, to meet her friends on the beach, and she was obviously not speaking to her mother. Jessica came to find Mel alone on the porch half an hour later, answering some letters. She sat down on the steps near Mel's feet, and waited until her mother looked up from what she was writing.

“How come we're going to Aspen, Mom?” She looked Mel straight in the eyes and it was difficult not to tell her the truth … because I've fallen in love with this man and he goes there in the summer.

“I thought it might be a nice change for us, Jess.” But she didn't quite look Jessica in the eyes, and didn't see how carefully she was watching her mother.

“Is there another reason?”

“Like what?” She was stalling for time, her pen poised over her paper.

“I don't know. I just don't understand why you'd want to go to Aspen.”

“We were invited by friends.” At least it was a half-truth, but this was turning out to be as difficult as Mel had feared, and if Peter thought his group was going to be any easier, he was crazy.

“What friends?” Jessica looked at her more intently, and Mel took a deep breath. There was no point lying to her, she'd find out soon enough.

“A man named Peter Hallam and his family.”

Jessica looked shocked. “The doctor you interviewed in California?” Mel nodded. “Why would he invite us to Aspen?”

“Because we're both alone with our children, and he was very nice to interview and we got to be friends. He has three children more or less your ages.”

“So what?” Jessica sounded even more suspicious now.

“So it might be fun.”

“For whom?” Touché. She was outraged now, and Mel felt suddenly exhausted. Maybe it was stupid to push to go to Aspen.

“Look, Jess, I just don't want to argue about this with you. We're going and that's it!”

“What is this?” She stood up with her hands on her hips, glaring at her mother. “A dictatorship or a democracy?”

“Call it what you like. We're going to Aspen in three weeks. I hope you'll enjoy it, if not, call it two lost weeks out of a very long, pleasant summer. I might remind you that you're going to have one hell of a nice time here, get to do everything you want for almost two months, and you and Val are having quite an elaborate birthday party next week. I don't think you have much to complain about.” But apparently Jessica did, as she stomped off in a huff without saying another word to her mother.

And things didn't improve much in the next two weeks despite the clambake on the beach for seventy-five kids for Jessie and Val's sixteenth birthday. It was a wonderful party and everyone had a great time, which made them even more resentful that they had to leave the following week. And by then, Mel was sick to death of hearing them complain about it.

“What about you, love?” She lay on her bed talking to Peter one night. They were still talking to each other twice a day, and dying to see each other, in spite of the children.

“I haven't told them yet. There's time.”

“Are you kidding? We're meeting you next week.” She sounded aghast. She had taken two weeks of abuse from the twins, and he hadn't even started dealing with it at his end.

“You have to be casual about these things.” He sounded extremely nonchalant and Mel thought he was crazy.

“Peter, you've got to give them time to adjust to the idea that we're meeting you there, or else they're going to be awfully surprised and probably very angry.”

“They'll be fine. Now tell me about you.” She told him about what she'd been doing, and he reported on the technique he had tried in surgery that morning. Marie was doing extremely well, despite a minor setback and she was due to leave the hospital in a few days, later than expected but in high spirits.