“So neither of them put the moves on Simon’s mother?” Dana wanted to know.

“No.” With a half laugh, Zoe scooted farther down the porch. “Of course not. Jordan was just doing a favor for a friend, and Bradley . . . it’s not like that.”

Dana’s opinion was a long hmmm as she got back to work.

By lunchtime the porch was sufficiently prepped to pass Zoe’s inspection. They gave their tired muscles a rest and sat on the sanded boards eating tuna sandwiches.

With a morning’s work behind them, the sun bright, and the mood mellow, Dana decided it was time to tell them her experience of the night before.

“So . . . I had a little run-in with Kane last night.”

Malory choked, grabbed for her bottle of water. “What? What? We’ve been here for over three hours, and you’re just getting around to telling us that?”

“I didn’t want to start off the morning with it. I knew we’d all get freaked again.”

“You’re okay?” Zoe laid a hand on Dana’s arm. “You’re not hurt or anything?”

“No, but I’ve got to tell you, the little brush I had with him before was nothing compared to this. I knew what happened with you, Mal, but I still didn’t get it. I do now.”

“Tell us.” Malory shifted so she and Zoe flanked Dana.

It was easier this time. She was able to relate the experience more calmly and with more detail than she’d done with Jordan. Still, her voice shook at times, and she had to reach for her Thermos of coffee, sip slowly to ease her throat.

“You could’ve drowned.” Zoe put her arm around Dana’s shoulder. “In the tub.”

“I wondered about that. But I don’t think so. If he could just, well, eliminate us, why not have us walk off a cliff, or step in front of a truck? Something like that.”

“Boy, that’s really cheery.” Zoe stared out at the street, nearly winced when a car drove by. “I’m so glad you mentioned it.”

“Come on. Seriously. It seems to me he can only go so far. Like it was with Malory. It comes down to us making a choice—to reaching down inside, holding on to enough of ourselves to recognize the illusion and reject it.”

“But he hurt you just the same,” Zoe pointed out.

“Oh, man.” Remembering, Dana rubbed a hand over her heart. “I’ll say. Even if the pain was an illusion, it did the job. Worse than the pain was knowing what the pain meant, then the fear that he could take that from me.”

“You should’ve called.” There was as much exasperation as concern in Malory’s voice. “Dana, you should have called me, or Zoe. Both of us. I know what it’s like to be caught in one of those illusions. You didn’t have to be alone.”

“I wasn’t. Exactly. Afterward, I mean. I was going to call. In fact, I think I was just going to stand in the bedroom and scream for both of you, but then Jordan knocked on the door.”

“Oh.”

Dana stared at Malory. “There’s no ‘oh’ in that meaningful tone. He just happened to be there at a moment when I’d have welcomed a visit from a two-headed dwarf as long as he could chase the bogeyman away.”

“Funny coincidence, though,” Malory said with a flutter of lashes. “I mean when you figure the elements of fate and destiny and connections.”

“Look, just because you’re all mush-brained over Flynn, don’t assume the rest of the world has to fall in line. He came by, and he behaved very decently. At first.”

“Let’s hear about at second, then,” Zoe insisted.

“Unlike Brad, apparently, Jordan rarely hesitates to make his move. He cornered me in the kitchen.”

“Really?” Malory gave a sigh. “The first time Flynn kissed me was in the kitchen.”

“Anyway, I’m going out with him Saturday night.” She waited, then scowled when no one spoke. “Well?”

Zoe braced her elbow on her thigh, propped her chin on her fist. “I was just thinking that it’d be nice if the two of you could at least be friends again. And that maybe, from an entirely different perspective, becoming friends again is part of what you have to do to find the key.”

“I think I need to get into this a little more before I start multitasking. I don’t know if I can be friends with Jordan again, because . . . I’m still sort of in love with him.”

“Dana.” Malory took her hand, but Dana broke free, pushed off the steps.

“I don’t know if I’m still in love—more or less—with him him, or with the him that I fell for all that time ago. You know, like this memory of him. This image, and it’s no more than an illusion now. But I’ve got to find out, don’t I?”

“Yeah.” Zoe unwrapped the brownies she’d brought along and held one out to Dana. “You need to find out.”

“And if I am in love with him, I can get over it.” She took a huge bite of brownie. “I got over it before. If I’m not in love with him, then everything gets back to normal. Or as back to normal as possible until I find the key.”

“What about his feelings?” Malory asked her. “Aren’t they a factor?”

“He had it his way once. This time around it’s my way.” She rolled her shoulders, pleased that the weight seemed to shrug off with the statement. “Let’s paint our porch.”

WHILE they broke out brushes and rollers, Jordan relayed Dana’s experience to Flynn and Brad.

They sat in Flynn’s living room, set up as an informal think tank. Jordan paced as he spoke, and Flynn’s dog, Moe, watched every movement in hopes that Jordan might detour to the kitchen, and cookies.

Now and again, if Jordan’s direction veered closer to the doorway, Moe’s big black tail would thump in anticipation. So far it hadn’t netted him any treats, but it did get him a few rubs on the back with Flynn’s foot.

“Why the hell didn’t you bring her back here?” Flynn demanded.

“I guess I could have. If I’d knocked her unconscious and hog-tied her. This is Dana we’re talking about.”

“Okay, okay, point taken. You could’ve told me all this last night.”

“I could’ve—and you’d have rushed over there. Which would’ve annoyed her. You’d have tried to make her come here, which would have meant the two of you would’ve ended up fighting. I just figured she’d had enough for one night. Added to that, I wanted to tell you both about it at once, when Malory wasn’t around.”