"Well," Jessie said, "at least it's not a Harley."

Mirabella shot her a look. "Oh, he wanted a Harley. Thank God, his dad drew the line at that. At least…well, I guess you could say they compromised. If J.J. proves he's responsible enough to handle this one safely, Jimmy Joe told him he could have a Harley for his college graduation present."

Jessie burst out with a cackle of laughter. Mirabella bristled and said, "What?"

"Nothing-except you reminded me so much of Momma just then." She paused, then added, "You do, you know-you're a lot like Momma-in more ways than one. I've always thought so."

Mirabella considered, then smiled. "I used to wonder what Jimmy Joe could possibly see in me. The first time he brought me here-remember?-and I saw you and Sammi June and J.J., all of you tall, blond and thin types-you could have been clones of my sisters-and my heart sank because here I am, you know, built just like a fireplug-short, round, and redheaded. And then your mother walked out. And I remember thinking, Okay, yes, now I understand. I think it was actually at that moment I began to believe it could work between us." Her voice was the purr of a contented woman, and Jessie felt unexpected twinges of envy.

She studied her sister-in-law, realizing, not for the first time, that at nearly fifty, Mirabella was still an uncommonly beautiful woman. "And…it doesn't bother you that your husband picked you because you remind him of his momma?"

Typically emphatic, Mirabella snorted. "Why should it? It always seems to me, if a man has a reasonably healthy respect and admiration for his mother, it only makes good sense for him to use her as a role model when he goes to choose a mate for himself. Doesn't it? Ha-if only more men were that smart."

Jessie smiled; Mirabella was famous for being forceful in her opinions. Then she shook her head and had to look away, because her smile was fading fast. She took a breath and let it out, and when it did nothing to ease the knot of fear and sadness that had come into her throat, said softly, "Well, I sure don't think I'm anything like Tris's mother."

"How do you know? I thought she died before you met him."

"I've seen pictures-she was dark, like Tris-but that's not what I mean. From what he's told me about her, she must have been tough as nails. Typical German woman-the boss of the house, if not the household, if you know what I mean." She sighed as she watched the knot of menfolk and adolescents of both genders gathered out in the lane. With arms crossed she absently rubbed her upper arms with her hands, though it wasn't chilly. "With Tris and me it was different-maybe because I was young when he met me. Or…maybe I'm too easygoing, I don't know. Anyway, he was the boss, and that was that. About pretty much everything. I guess I just…wanted to please him. So I always-"

She broke off with a gasp as a metallic scream ripped the soft air. The black-and-yellow motorcycle had just shot out of the knot of spectators and was tearing off down the lane, a long, lean figure hunched low over the handlebars.

"Oh…God, that's Tris. What is he-" She stopped herself with fingertips touched to her lips, and cleared her throat.

"He'll be fine," said Mirabella dismissively, following her gaze. Then her eyes came back to Jessie, and she made a sound that was half sympathy, half exasperation. "Honey, don't worry. He's a big boy. I imagine he's got some catch-up living to do."

"It's not that," Jessie muttered with a sniff, impatient and appalled at the tears that seemed to flow so easily these days. She scrubbed them away with her wrist and, because she knew Mirabella wasn't going to rest until she'd gotten to the bottom of the reason for them, she went on bluntly, almost angrily, "Sometimes I think…maybe I was too damn agreeable. Back then. Too accommodating. I mean-if it's true men want a woman like their mommas, and I sure as hell wasn't…I can't help but think…you know…"

"Think what?" Mirabella wasn't inclined to help her out.

"Maybe," Jessie mumbled, embarrassed to voice the thoughts that had been haunting her, "he was bored with me."

She expected another one of Mirabella's patented snorts, but instead her sister-in-law said, with unheralded gentleness, "Now, why would you think that?"

So Jessie snorted instead, and began pacing restlessly across the porch. "Because he sure didn't seem to mind being away from me. In fact, it always seemed to me like he was eager to be gone. I think he loved being out there, in the middle of the action. I don't think he was ever happy when he was home."

She stopped to dash away a tear and stare across the yard at nothing. "We fought about it," she said at last, softly. "Before he left for the Gulf, that last time. I'd stood up to him, for once. I told him he was being selfish and childish, going off to a war zone when he had a wife and child right here who needed him. He didn't have to go. But he'd missed the action during the Gulf War, because of that water-skiing accident, remember? And he figured patrolling the no-fly zone was going to be his last chance at flying combat missions. He was so damn stubborn about it-he just kept saying, 'It's something I have to do.' Like nothing in the world was as important to him, not me, not Sammi June-nothing. It made me so angry, 'Bella. I was actually…I'd started to think-" She put a hand over her eyes and drew a shaking breath. "Oh God. I was thinking what it would be like…not to be married to him anymore. Not to have to always be saying goodbye to him, then getting used to him coming back. I was actually thinking maybe, when he came back, I'd leave him. That's why I moved back here and got that job at the hospital."

"Oh, Jessie," Mirabella said softly. "I had no idea." After a moment she added in a thoughtful tone, "And yet, all those years, you never remarried."

Jessie angrily dashed away tears. "Well, it wasn't that I didn't love him. I was just so tired of being alone all the time…seeing Sammi June's heart get broken over and over again. And then he didn't come back, and-" she gave a high, hard laugh "-I'm thinking, Okay, God's punishing me."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Mirabella. "Like God's some sort of puppetmaster with a weird sense of humor? I never have been able to buy that." She shook her head, and her smile grew softer. "I think things have an odd way of working out, that's all." She paused, and then…"Jimmy Joe was angry with me when he first met me, did you know that? He thought I was being selfish because I'd had myself artificially inseminated when I was pushing forty and hadn't found Mr. Right. He thought I was just awful to bring a child into the world and knowingly deprive it of a father. But, you know what? And I told him this later-if I hadn't done that terrible thing, then I wouldn't have been out there on that interstate on Christmas Eve, having a baby in a blizzard, and I never would have met the one man in this world, I swear, with the temperament to put up with me."

"Oh, 'Bella." Jessie couldn't help but laugh. Then she was wistfully silent, thinking about it.

Mirabella airily waved her hand. "Look-maybe it's just a matter of neither one of you knowing what you had before. And now you do. Like…you get a second chance."

"Do we?" Aching inside, Jessie leaned against a porch post and watched as the motorcycle came zipping back down the road and turned into the lane, making a sound like an angry hornet hooked up to an amplifier. She watched Tristan deftly and gracefully dismount, pull off the helmet and hand it over to J.J. with a grin she could see all the way from here. She threw Mirabella a look. "Not a second chance-I mean, do we know what we have? Because whatever we may have had before, it's not gonna be the same thing now. He's for sure not the same way he was, and I'm not, either. What do we do if we can't-if he doesn't-"

She stopped, because thinking about it was like looking into a terrifying abyss. After a couple of painful swallows, she gave an impatient, almost angry laugh. "Oh, hell, I'm just bein' a crybaby, never mind me. I don't s'pose we're the first married couple to have to readjust after bein' separated by a war. What do you think-a few million?"

"I don't know," said Mirabella with uncharacteristic gravity, "but I imagine quite a few of those marriages suffered as a result. But," she added in a more normal, positive tone, "you two loved each other once, enough that you didn't remarry-"

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Jessie interrupted, with an angry swat at the air, "it's not like I wouldn't have, if I'd met anybody I wanted to marry! I just didn't, that's all."

"Maybe," said Mirabella, "that's because you never found anybody who could measure up to Tristan." Jessie looked at her and didn't say anything. "So what was it about him, do you remember? What was it that made you fall in love with him, all those years ago?"

Jessie gave a gulp of guilty laughter. "Oh Lord-the sex. No-I swear, it was. Sex, hormones, chemistry…what can I say?"

Mirabella made an impatient face. "Yeah, sure, right. At first, maybe. Look-I know Tristan's got great eyes and a killer smile, but the sex-appeal thing doesn't last. I mean, what did you love about him?"

"Oh Lord." Jessie thought about it, hugging herself because, in spite of the warmth of the afternoon, she could feel herself shivering deep inside. "God…when I think about him back then, all I seem to be able to remember is the way he smiled…his eyes…he seemed so happy-go-lucky, so arrogant, so confident and cocky…" She laughed shakily. "Stubborn to the point of being bullheaded…opinionated…convictions as unshakable as his jaw."

Her sister-in-law shook her head and made a clicking sound with her tongue. "Hmm…not exactly an easy person to live with," she murmured, and Jessie caught a glimpse of the laughter in her eyes. Because, of course, Mirabella herself could have been that person Jessie'd just described.