A hush fell. Mike and Jody's next-door neighbor, Cliff Dawson, was standing on a ladder, stringing a net of tiny lights. He sat down abruptly on the top step and stared at Maddy with his mouth open. His hammer clattered to the deck, and his wife, Lois, picked it up and hit him on the shin with it. He didn't even blink.

Mike gave Maddy a smug I-told-you-so grin and said, "Hah!"

Jody walked across the lawn toward her, beaming like a proud mother. "Amanda, that's perfect. Absolutely perfect. I didn't think you'd really do it, but let me tell you, you're going to be glad you did, I guarantee it. Wait till you see-no, no! Not there. That goes over there!" She dashed off to intercept two caterer's assistants loaded down with trays.

Maddy turned to Mike and muttered, "Where's that champagne? I think I need a drink." She was joking. She wasn't much of a drinker at any time, and Mike knew it.

"Sorry, no champagne until the grand opening. How 'bout a beer?"

"In this dress? Are you kidding? Where would I put it?"

Mike shook his head and breathed heavily. "Darlin", I do see your point."

Maddy was saved from having to think up a rebuttal to that as the Harbors' twin boys came clattering onto the patio, shouting in two-part harmony. "Maddy, Maddy, there you are! What took you so long? Mom said you were coming to play with us. Did you bring any puppets? Did you bring Bosley? Can I work him?"

"No, I get to work him!"

"It's my turn. You got to last time!"

"Did not!"

"Did too. It's my turn. Maddy!"

Maddy gazed down fondly at the two curly blond heads. The boys' cheeks were pink, their grins appealingly gap-toothed, their eyes wide. And they were totally unimpressed by the way she was dressed. Thank heaven for the kids. To them she was still just plain old Maddy, and that meant only one thing.

"Come on, Maddy-where are they? Which ones did you bring?"

She stared down at the two little boys now with a sense of shock. For probably the first time in her life, she'd forgotten all about her puppets!

"Hey, guess what?" she said. She took one small hand firmly in each of hers and thought fast. "I'm going to show you guys how to make a puppet of your own. Who's got a sweat sock?"

"I have!" both boys shouted.

"Clean?"

They grinned and lifted their shoulders in identical shrugs.

Maddy spent two delightful hours sitting cross-legged in the middle of the twins' bedroom floor, her lap full of felt and paper scraps, her fingers collecting a layer of glue and paint. When she heard Jody calling from downstairs, she brushed herself off with reluctance, kissed the boys, and silenced their protests by promising to bring Bosley soon. Then, with a fatalistic sigh, she left the room to face Jody and her latest victim.

She was already halfway down the stairs before it struck her that the man with his arm in Jody's clutches looked terribly familiar.

Nobody else in the world could have hair like that.

She thought about turning around and escaping back up the stairs, but her legs weren't up to it. And besides, it was already too late. He'd seen her.

"Oh, Maddy, there you are," Jody said. "I should have known. Look who's here. Isn't it marvelous? I know you two have met."

"Yes," Zack murmured. "We have. Hello, Maddy."

Eight

Maddy managed to croak "Zack," but that was all.

He just stood there with his hands in his pockets, scowling up at her. Jody looked from his face to Maddy's and seemed to conclude that, though her surprise wasn't producing quite the reaction she'd intended, this was infinitely more interesting. And then, because for all her blithe and sometimes thoughtless nature she really wasn't an insensitive person, she apparently decided to leave things to percolate naturally.

"Oh, look," she cried suddenly, "there are the Duncans. I'll leave it to Maddy to show you around, Zachary. Excuse me. Hilary, how wonderful you look! What a marvelous tan! Tell me all about Mazatlan…"

Her voice faded into background noise. Maddy cleared her throat. She couldn't think of anything to say, and Zack wasn't helping her out. Why was her throat so dry? Why did she have the feeling that if she let go of the banister, she'd sit down rather more abruptly than she would care to?

"Well," she said at last. "I didn't know you knew Jody."

"I didn't," he said shortly, "until this afternoon."

"Oh."

"I'm here because she told me you would be. I'm not very big on parties."

"Oh," Maddy said, and took a deep breath. She wished he'd stop looking at her like that. He hadn't even seemed to notice her dress. Like Jody's boys, he didn't seem to find anything at all unusual about the way she looked. To her surprise, Maddy began to feel vaguely miffed. Darn it, the one time she'd ever really wanted a man to think she looked nice, she might just as well have been wearing sweats!

She shrugged, and began, with dignity, to descend the stairs. The discovery that she'd left her shoes on the twins' bedroom floor made dignity a little more difficult to manage, but she held her head high and did the best she could. "Well," she said with a wave of her hand, "now you see why I couldn't come for my lesson tonight. I'd have explained, but-"

"Baloney."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said, baloney. You left that message with Dahlia at nine o'clock this morning. Jody didn't even tell you about the party until this afternoon."

"How do you know?" Beyond miffed and well along toward anger, Maddy paused on the bottom step, where she would have a height advantage even without her three-inch heels.

Zack took care of that simply enough. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her down beside him. "Because when Jody called me, she told me she'd just finished talking to you."

Maddy opened her mouth, closed it again, and muttered, "Thanks a lot, Jody."

Zack's smile was grim. "Never pays to lie, Maddy."

She stared at him in helpless fury, then whirled and stalked out to the patio. It was much harder to stalk impressively when barefoot.

The party had gotten well underway while she'd been hiding upstairs with the children. The christening ceremony had obviously already taken place, because there were glasses of champagne on the buffet tables, and the caterers were circulating with open bottles. Maddy snatched a plastic glass from the table and downed its contents in one gulp.

"Better take it easy," Zack murmured sardonically. "I think that stuffs supposed to be sipped, not gulped."

"You drink champagne your way," Maddy said furiously, "and I'll drink it my way." She didn't feel like telling him she wasn't accustomed to drinking champagne any way. Pointedly turning her back to him, she managed to snag a caterer with a bottle, and avidly watched him fill her glass to the brim.

"For your information," she informed Zack as she took a prim sip from her glass, "I was thirsty." She turned to pick up a second glass from the buffet table and waved it recklessly at him. "Here, have some."

He muttered, "No, thanks," and went on watching her through half-closed, shadowy eyes.

She shrugged, and took a sip from that glass to hide her fury. Who did he think he was, tracking her down like this, cornering her at her best friend's party? Just because she'd broken a little old appointment! He was acting as if he owned her! As if she owed him something! He'd offered to teach her to swim- she hadn't asked him! If she changed her mind, that was her business, not his! She didn't need him butting into her personal, private affairs. She didn't need him at all, and if she didn't want to tell him her life's story, that was her business too!

Inexplicably, the pressure in her chest surged up into her throat and threatened to escape in the form of humiliating tears. She ducked her head and desperately gulped champagne.

"Maddy…" Zack took the empty glass from her hand and set it on the table. When he tried to relieve her of the other glass as well, she eluded him, and muttered, "That's mine."

"Come on, Maddy."

Hah, she thought. He was beginning to sound frustrated. Good. He deserved it. He shouldn't have come here. It wasn't going to do any good. She wasn't going to get in that pool of his again. She wasn't going to go back to his place again, either. Not alone. Because if she did…

"Come on, that's enough champagne." He finally captured the now-empty glass and disposed of it, then caught her wrists.

She stared down at his hands, then said imperiously, "Let go, please."

He shook his head. "Not until you stop this nonsense and tell me why you bolted."

She stared at him, and wondered why her eyes had developed a tendency to cross. Maybe she needed glasses. "Bolted? What's that mean?"

"Why you quit-gave up-chickened out!"

"I didn't chicken out. I just…" She looked longingly at the champagne, but Zack was still holding her wrists. "I just…" She took a deep breath and frowned. If she started to cry here, in front of all these people, she'd never forgive him. Ever.

"Maddy, come with me. Now. Let's go back to my place and get to the bottom-"

"Can't go swimming," she declared. "I just curled my hair."

"No swimming. Well just talk, okay? Just talk to me, Maddy. Tell me what's making you so afraid. Please."

She shook her head. She could be just as stubborn as he could. She wasn't even sure why she was being stubborn. She only knew that Zack London scared her more than the water did. He was demanding things of her that she wasn't sure she was ready to give. Making her feel things she wasn't ready to feel. If she went with him now, she'd have to confront those emotions, and she had a notion that once she did, her life would never be the same again.