"I meant, you and Dad did so much, supported me in every way when I wanted to dance. Please, Mama," Kate said when Natasha started to speak. "Just let me finish this. It's been on my mind. All the lessons, all those years. The costumes, the shoes, the travel. Letting me go to New York when I know Dad would have preferred I'd gone to college. But you let me have what I needed most. I always knew that. I wanted you to be proud of me."

"Of course we were proud of you. What nonsense have you put in your head?"

"I know you were. I know. I could feel it, see it. When I was dancing and you were there, even when I couldn't see you through the footlights, I couldsee. And now I've tossed it away."

"No, you've set it aside. Kate, do you think we're only proud of you when you dance? Only proud of the artist, of that skill?"

Her eyes were brimming. She couldn't help it. "I worried that you might be disappointed that I gave it up to teach."

"Of all my children," Natasha said with a shake of her head, "you are the one forever searching in corners to see if there's a speck of dust. Even when there isn't, you can't help but poke in with the broom. Answer me this, do you want to be a good teacher?"

"Yes, very much."

"Then you will be, and we'll be proud of that. And between these times, between the dancer and the teacher, we're proud of you. Proud that you know what you want, and how to work for it. Proud that you're a lovely young woman with a kind heart and a strong mind. If you doubt that, Katie, you will disappoint me."

"I don't. I won't. Oh." She let out a long breath and blinked at the tears. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm so weepy lately."

"You're changing your life. It's an emotional time. And you give yourself too much time to think and worry. Kate, why aren't you out with your friends? You have so many still in the area. Why aren't you going out to a party tonight, or with some handsome young man, instead of staying home on New Year's Eve to bake a ham with your mama?"

"I like baking hams with my mama."

"Kate."

"All right." But she got up to finish the pastry. She needed to keep her hands busy. "I thought about going to one of the parties tonight. But most of my friends are married, or at least coupled off. But I'm not a couple and I'm not really… shopping around. You know?"

"Mmm. And why aren't you… shopping around?"

"Because I've already seen something that appeals to me."

"Ah. Who?"

"Brody O'Connell."

"Ah," Natasha said again, and lifted her tea to sip and consider. "I see."

"I'm very attracted to him."

"He's a very attractive man." Natasha's eyes began to dance. "Yes, very attractive, and I like him very much."

"Mama—you didn't send him down to look at the job to throw us together, romantically?"

"No. But I would have if I'd thought of it. So, why aren't you out with Brody O'Connell for New Year's Eve?"

"He's scared of me." Kate laughed when her mother made a dismissing noise. "Well, uneasy might be a better word. I might have come on a little strong, initially."

"You?" Natasha deliberately rounded her eyes. "My shy little Katie?"

"Okay, okay." Laughing now, Kate set aside the rolling pin. "I definitely came on too strong. But when I ran into him the first time in the toy store when he was getting a toy for Jack, and we were flirting, I thought we were on the same wavelength."

"In the toy store," Natasha murmured. She and Spence had met the first time in the toy store, when he had been picking out a doll for his daughter, Freddie.

Fate, she thought. You could never anticipate it.

"Yes, then when I realized he was buying that truck for his son, I assumed he was married. So I was annoyed he'd flirted back."

"Of course." Natasha was grinning now. It just got better and better.

"Then, of course, I found out he wasn't, and the field was open. He's interested, too," she muttered and banged the rolling pin. "Just stubborn about it."

"He's lonely."

Kate looked up, and the little spark of temper she'd hoped to fan into flame flickered out. "Yes, I know. But he keeps stepping back from me. Maybe he does that with everyone, but Jack."

"He's very warm and friendly with me. Yet when I asked him to come by tomorrow, he made excuses. You should change his mind," Natasha decided. She rose to get back to work. "Yes, you should go by his house later, take him a dish of the black-eyed peas for luck in the new year, and change his mind about coming by tomorrow."

"It's pretty presumptuous, dropping by a man's house on New Year's Eve," Kate said, then grinned. "It's perfect. Thanks, Mama."

"Good." Natasha dipped a finger into the pastry filling, licked it off. "Then your father and I will have a little New Year's Eve party of our own."

Brody nursed a beer and wished he hadn't eaten that last slice of pizza. He was sprawled on the couch, with Jack, in the center of the disaster that had been their living room. Some B horror flick involving giant alien eyeballs was on TV.

He loved B movies—couldn't help himself.

In a couple of hours, he'd switch it over to the coverage of Time's Square. Jack wanted to see the ball drop—and had insisted he could stay awake until midnight.

He'd done everything but prop his eyelids open with toothpicks to make it, which explained the state of the house. He'd finally dropped, snuggled into the crook of Brody's arm. Brody would hold the fort until five minutes before midnight, then wake Jack up to see the new year in. Brody sipped his beer and watched the giant eye menace the humans.

And nearly jumped out of his skin when the knock sounded at his door.

Cursing, he slid Jack down onto the couch so he could lever himself off. The odds of someone coming to his door after ten at night, he figured, were about the same as giant alien eyeballs threatening the Earth. He stepped over and around toys, shoes, socks, and headed for the door. Somebody lost or broken down, he decided. Everyone he knew was celebrating the New Year, one way or the other. Not everyone, he realized with a jolt as he opened the door to Kate.