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“I should have gotten a vasectomy.”
“Probably, but now I’m glad you didn’t. Tony, I want to try right away. I’m not taking the pill again.”
“Don’t you need to let your body rest up or something?”
“Probably, but I’m not going to. So, are you in?”
“Look, there’s the exit,” he said, pointing. He needed another second to think.Nowas on the tip of his tongue.
She pulled off the highway.
“Well?”
“Yes, I’m in,” he said with just a hint of reluctance. “But that thing you said before, that I didn’t need to be involved, to father, I can’t stand for that. If we do this, I’m going to be the dad.” The thought of throwing a football to his sons on the beach came to him, and he almost wept. Grabbing her free hand, he kissed it. “I’m definitely in.”
Chapter 1
At the end of Sea View, in the last cottage on the beach before Shore Pizza and the marina, Sandra Benson stood at the kitchen counter, staring off into space. The housekeeper and handyman had already sorted through boxes of Christmas decorations in the garage attic, even though Christmas was two months away, but there was just no way Sandra could get excited about it yet. Exhaustion had set in the day before and taken up residence in her brain.
The new casino her firm had built in Las Vegas had issues that required her presence, so for the last two weeks, on Monday and Thursday she’d been flying there at four o’clock in the morning and returning to Babylon by midnight.
“Sweetheart, just stay there at night. Hazel and I can manage,” her husband Andy commented, referring to the live-in nanny.
“No way. I want to sleep in my own bed and wake up to my family in the morning. I really need to be there before and after the weekend. They are doing okay during the week.”
Andy came up behind her to rub her back. “Do you mind heading up to my father’s place?”
“Not at all. I’m intrigued. Why on earth would Tony and Kassandra move to Babylon? Their lives are the antithesis of Sea View.”
“I’m not sure. I think my father might have gotten it wrong. In the first place, my brother doesn’t make enough money to buy that awful house.”
“But Kassandra does,” Sandra reminded him. “And if Igor was smart, he’d just hand the place over to your brother and let them live there with his trust in place until he dies. We don’t need his money. We are going to have to find another house to buy, especially after my deal is closed.”
“Aw, I love it here,” Andy said.
“I don’t mean to move into, no way,” Sandra replied. “I mean to spend some money. I’d better quit while we’re ahead. Uncle Sam will get his share, no matter, I guess.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Andy exclaimed. “My job is basically busywork. I’ve been talking to Will Peterson about buying houses and fixing them ourselves to sell.”
Sandra’s eyes finally focused on Andy. “Andy, no way. When did you cook this up?”
Snickering, he left her side and went to the glass doors overlooking the ocean. “Last weekend when we were working on Lisa’s attic conversion. He said he wished he could do that sort of thing full time.”
“If you want to do carpentry full time, you have my blessing,” she said. “I think it’s a great idea. But we’d still be in the same boat of making money and paying taxes on it. There just comes a point where enough is enough.”
“We talked about that, too. We were thinking of doing kind of a Habitat for Humanity thing, where we would provide a home for a family who needed a place to live.”
“Like a 501c3 thing?” Sandra frowned again, her brain whirling. “I’m not against that.”
“I didn’t think you’d be,” he said, rushing back to her side. “You’re so smart, Sandra. You could really help us with all the legalities and so forth.”
“Andy, you’re the attorney, not me. I’m clueless about charitable organizations.”
“I am too. We’ll figure it out. Dan’s interested, too.”
“Oh, God, the whole friggin’ hood.”
“Ha! Yes, everyone is interested. Even Ryan.”
