“Madison?” Kaila said.

“Uh…sure.”

“Come on, Kaila,” Dan said. “We’ve got to be the lions. We must prevail. We can’t humiliate ourselves in front of our children.”

“Well, now, I’m pretty good at chicken fights,” Kyle advised Dan and Kaila solemnly.

“And I could always beat the shit out of Kaila,” Madison warned Dan.

“Whoa, that’s a challenge if I ever heard one!” Kaila cried.

Ten minutes later, she and Kaila were laughing hysterically, because no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t drag one another off the men’s shoulders and into the pool. The kids were shrieking with laughter.

“Kaila, don’t squirm so much!” Dan protested. “You’re pulling out all the hair on my head. And I may be losing it already, you know?”

“Madison, let her go. You’ve got your sister’s knee in my nose!” Kyle groaned.

“I’m going to beat her! I’m going to beat her!” Kaila cried, pulling with all her might on Madison’s hands.

“Ha!” Madison declared, but then she and Kaila both went down.

They made tremendous splashes, and the kids demanded a rematch. Instead, Kyle set them up in the shallow end of the pool, Carrie Anne with baby Anthony on her shoulders, while Justin went into battle with Shelley on his own. Kyle helped both contestants balance and managed to let Shelley win, since she cared, and Anthony fall, since all he really wanted to do was create a big splash.

Before they left, Madison tried to take her sister aside again, but it was tough—Kaila didn’t want to get taken aside. Madison finally managed to get a moment out by the car, as they were getting ready to leave. “Kaila, if something is going on, if you were almost involved with someone, please, tell me. Maybe I could help.”

“Don’t be silly,” Kaila protested. “There…there wasn’t anyone.”

“Okay, I’m not going to call you a liar,” Madison said quickly, seeing that Dan and Kyle were walking toward them. “But if you ever need to talk, if you ever need help, call me. Or Jassy. Or Dad!”

“Oh, yeah, Dad! He still treats Jassy as if she were sixteen.”

“And she ignores him. So don’t call Dad. Call me or Jassy.”

“Of course, Madison.”

“Honest?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Kyle was there then, along with Dan. Carrie Anne was already in the back seat, sound asleep. Madison and Kyle said good-night, Madison taking the driver’s seat, since she wasn’t sure just how many Guinnesses Kyle had consumed.

But when they waved goodbye and started backing out, she caught a glimpse of Kyle’s eyes, and she realized he was stone-cold sober.

“What’s the matter?” she asked him, smiling. “You were looking like a good old boy there for a while.”

“Nothing’s the matter.”

“Something is.”

He shrugged. “Your brother-in-law asked me to look into something for him.”

“What?”

He glanced at her. “You don’t know?”

She shook her head.

“She didn’t say anything to you about…seeing someone?”

Madison felt as if a cold sweat were breaking out on her forehead. “Kaila’s not having an affair.”

“You’re certain?”

“I—Yes,” she lied. “Why?”

He glanced into the back seat to make sure that Carrie Anne was still sleeping, then turned back to Madison. “Because someone sent her edible panties.”

“What?” Madison asked incredulously.

He nodded.

“But how did—how did Dan know?”

He shrugged. “Apparently Kaila thought he sent them. And she wore them for him.”

“Well, then…” Madison trailed to a stop. “Obviously, if she wore them for Dan, then she isn’t having an affair. Some prankster must have sent them—”

“Well, we’ll find out,” Kyle said casually.

Madison frowned. “Kyle, why would you want to do anything that might jeopardize Kaila’s marriage?” she asked nervously.

Kyle shook his head. “You’re forgetting something.”

“What?”

“Your sister is a redhead. If some prankster is sending her things, I want to know just who the hell it is.”

“But, Kyle, it could be—”

“Damn it, Madison, she can work on her marriage after we finish worrying about her life!” he said firmly.

Madison fell silent for a minute. “Give me a chance to talk to her, okay?”

“All right.”

“All right.”

“Tomorrow,” Kyle said. “At my father’s gallery opening. You know she’ll be there.”

“Right.”

“Madison?”

“Yes?”

“If she doesn’t talk to you, I will use every investigative avenue available to me to find out how your sister managed to get such a gift.”

Madison pulled the car into her driveway. Kyle carefully lifted Carrie Anne from the back seat and carried her to the house while Madison opened the door and punched in the numbers on the alarm pad.

Kyle took Carrie Anne on into her room, where Madison thanked him. He left, as Madison got ready to change Carrie Anne into a nightgown.

Madison thought he might be waiting for her in the kitchen or the living room, but he wasn’t. She hesitated, then went to the guest room door and tapped lightly.

“Yes?”

She opened the door. He was at the computer. “Sorry. Just wanted to say good-night.”

“Good night, Madison.”

She nodded and closed the door.

Well, so much for him dying of desire for her.

She went to bed herself, certain she would lie awake or, worse, that she would fall asleep—and dream.

She did. In her dream, she was driving. It was her, and this time she knew it was her, not some other woman. She was driving hard and fast, almost recklessly.

She was driving down the Tamiami Trail, far west, out of the city of Miami. There were old dirt roads out here. Some were roads that cut into the swamp, across canals and marshes, ending nowhere. Some were roads that headed toward the old shacks that remained hidden deep in the pine hammocks.

She was driving in a panic, trying to get somewhere. Somewhere she knew. From a different life, she thought.

Or from a time when she had been very young.

She shouldn’t be going, but she couldn’t turn back.

She had to get…somewhere. It was like the time when she had come out of her bedroom. When she had known that she had to reach her mother. She had to move, move swiftly, because if she didn’t…

Oh, God, if she didn’t…

Someone else was going to die. Someone else she loved. Oh, God, she had to floor it, floor it, drive….

“Madison, shh, Madison, it’s all right….”

Kyle was there. He’d gotten into the bed beside her, taken her into his arms. Now he was soothing her, running his fingers through her hair. “I’m here. It’s all right.”

She shivered fiercely. He held her close.

“What was it this time?”

“I was driving again. I was driving down the Tamiami Trail. I had to get somewhere really fast, and I was desperate, because if I didn’t get where I was going, something awful was going to happen. I was trying to reach…one of the shacks. Remember the shacks, Kyle? When were young, Roger and my dad used to have them, until the government cracked down on the Everglades. Men used to go out there hunting, but they usually just got drunk and shot up beer cans. Your dad must have taken you out there.”

“Yes, he did. They used to get so tanked up, it’s probably a miracle that the only things that ever got killed out there were beer cans.”

She smiled, then groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Am I ever going to stop dreaming?”

“Madison,” he said, gently lifting her face to meet her eyes. “Those shacks were all torn down years ago. It’s a new world. The environmentalists hate guys who shoot beer cans.”

She half smiled, and he grazed her cheek with his knuckles. He was so close, but his arms drew her closer. She had been shivering; his strength warmed away the cold of fear. He was wearing only a robe. Temptation ruled. She slipped her fingers into the opening of the robe, running them along his chest. Lower. Her fingers brushed, then covered, the length of his erection, sending a fierce shudder throughout her. She stroked him beneath the robe, her lips coming closer to his. But he drew away suddenly, whispering softly, “The door.”