“Good move, kids,” Nina said. “What an idea. I doubt I would have thought of using a shaver on a stick.”

“You have to think outside the lines,” Bob said, repeating an old line they often used with each other. “Am I still grounded?”

“Until you wash the truck,” she said.

The boys were extremely pleased with themselves. Bob got the hose from the yard and they gave the truck a rinse, if not a wash, then Bob turned the hose on Taylor, who grabbed it away. They kept it up until they were screaming and almost blue from the cold. Then they went inside, dried off, and helped themselves to microwaved popcorn, leaving a good portion on the kitchen floor for Hitchcock to clean. Soon Taylor ’s dad drove up and collected them for their waste-disposal rounds.

You had to hand it to Bob. He had a way about him.

The afternoon passed in a blur of errands. Finally Nina was back on her couch, a freshly bathed dog at her feet, a crystal glass full to the brim with Clos du Bois-the sauvignon blanc, not the chardonnay-in her hand, and the news on TV.

The phone rang. The call was from the land of men.

“Hi. It’s Mick.” Mick the math teacher.

“Hello,” Nina said.

“I hope you don’t mind me calling you at home. You gave me your personal card. I hope it wasn’t by accident. Hey, guess what day it is.”

“Saturday.”

“That’s right. And Saturday night is date night. I heard around town that you might actually be free for a change.”

“For a date?”

“That’s right. A harmless sort of thing. Dinner, wherever you want. I know it’s late notice. But we’re grown-ups and we can break the rules.”

“What about your wife?”

“I told you, she left me.”

“What about the student?”

“She came to her senses and left me, too. It was a disastrous peccadillo. She was twenty-one, by the way. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

“Mick, I can’t go out with you. I’m very flattered. But I’m your lawyer. It would be unethical.”

“You put up some major obstacles, Nina, but I am a mathematician and I anticipated that one. I am resigning as your client. I’ll find some other lawyer. We have nothing pending anyway. I hadn’t consulted you yet. Nina?”

“I don’t think so, Mick.”

“What are your plans for tonight?”

She planned to take a walk in the neighborhood with Hitchcock. On the other hand, it would be nice to sit across a table from a well-spoken man. Neither of them had a thing to do on this particular night. Why not?

Who cares? she thought. Mick, or Bova, or the next guy.

Quickies. Then the thought came: When did I give up all hope?

“Nothing too special,” she said.

“No expectations,” Mick said. “No strings. You have to eat dinner anyway.”

“True.”

“I enjoyed our conversation at my office.”

“You have to be kidding. About Braun?”

“Don’t you have some other math questions for me?”

Now, that was some invitation. “Well, all right. Sounds like a plan.” She gave him her address.

“Bob!”

“Yeah?” He was in his room, up to no good, no doubt.

“I’m going out tonight. There’s a Hungry Man in the freezer. Is that okay?”

“Yum.”

“I’ll set the alarm when I go. Don’t forget it’s on.”

“Uh-huh.”

Upstairs, she pulled out her low-cut red sweater and brushed her long hair. Let Mick’s eyes bug out. She hoped he would have enough wits left to answer a couple more questions. Hitchcock followed her around, his tail wagging hopefully.

“Sorry, boy,” she told him.

That ol’ mountain moon shone down through the twilight as Mick’s car pulled into the driveway. Nina watched from upstairs as he disembarked from the driver’s side, carrying a bouquet of cranberry and gold.

Flowers! How long had it been since anyone had given her flowers?

“Greetings,” he said at the door. “You look superb.”

“Thank you.” Demurely she took the flowers and invited him to come in to see the cabin, the orange Swedish stove in the corner, the big windows onto the backyard, the thick rug.

“Cozy,” he said. She arranged the flowers in a jar and set them on the table. Bob came out in his sweats and was duly introduced. Mick, in jeans and a pin-striped shirt, but no pen in the shirt pocket, looked pretty harmless, like the boys at high school who always hold up their hands to answer the teacher’s questions, the ones who seldom get drunk and always shower in the morning. Away from his office, he seemed more subdued, even nervous.

She suggested Passaretti’s, only a few miles away on Highway 50 heading out of town toward Echo Summit.

She hugged Bob good-bye, gave Hitchcock a pat, and set the alarm on her way out, slamming the door tightly behind her, pulling on the handle once to make sure it had latched.

“Feels good to get out,” Mick said, opening the car door for her. He drove a VW Jetta. All in all, there was a comforting normality and modesty about him. “My apartment is the repository of too many memories right now. Wait, I didn’t mean to start out like that.”

“It’s okay.”

“Right now is what matters,” he said. “Tonight.” Mick drove with one hand, fast. The trees on both sides of the road seemed to lean in on them.

At Passaretti’s they found a private booth. The roadhouse twinkled with tiny lights and smelled like a garlic field. Nina ordered a glass of Chianti and Mick had a beer.

She guessed that he was about thirty, maybe six years younger than she was. Once they loosened up, they started talking like old friends, and the conversation quickly rose to an intimate level of honesty. Nina enjoyed herself. She wished Paul away. He had another woman. She had the right to other men.

After a while Mick leaned back against the wall of the booth and said, “You’re intimidating.”

“So are you. You’re smart.”

“Book-smart, you must mean? Surely you don’t refer to how I conduct my life.”

“What’s going to happen with the student and the wife?”

“They’ll leave my sphere quietly, I think. None of us wants trouble.”

Nina said, hesitating, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’d rather have dinner with you, and talk about life and the world to come, and not talk about my everyday problems.”

What a relief. She didn’t want to talk about her everyday problems, either. “So, how long have you been at Tahoe?”

“Three years. I’m thinking of taking a teaching job in L.A. Living at the beach.”

“Do you like teaching mathematics?”

“I love it. I love showing kids the beauty and elegance of math, how certain and satisfying the equations can be. I like undressing Nature. Seeing beauty bare. Do you like practicing law?”

“Yes,” Nina said. “Although I fuss about the hours and the stress all the time.”

Mick waited, but Nina didn’t go on. She had said what she usually said, and seldom did anyone want her to go farther. But Mick seemed genuinely curious, in a pedagogical sort of way.

“That’s all you have to say about it? Why work so hard? Why put yourself on the line for strangers?”

Nina said, laughing, “No boundaries, I guess.”

“Be serious.”

“Okay. This case I’m working on: I want to catch a man and make him see what he’s done to a family. All the law can do is take his money and liberty. I want to make sure he understands what he did.”

“You want more than what’s required. Or even humanly possible. You’re setting yourself up.”

“I can handle it.”

“But if this bad guy came to you and asked you to defend him, you would?”

“I might. To make sure the punishment is proportionate to the crime. To make sure he gets due process. What if he’s mentally ill? What if there are mitigating circumstances?”

“You take on conflicting roles, avenging angel, bleeding heart.”