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He lifted his hands in a calming motion. “I’m not trying to make you mad. I’m just saying… We have a daughter. We both have to be very careful what we expose her to.”

“You think I haven’t been careful?” she said, rocking back. “I’ve been so careful that I haven’t even dated since our divorce. I’m sure you know that.”

“I do know that. I’m just…surprised you’d start with someone like Kanon. That’s all.”

“I don’t care what he was like in high school, Jack. He’s a good man. And he’s really great with Ari. Just ask her.”

He didn’t look too pleased with her response.

“What?” she said when he simply stared at her.

“We’re never getting back together, are we?”

There’d been a time when she would’ve welcomed such an invitation. She’d been devastated by the divorce, by the fact that he could move on so quickly with someone else—her best friend, no less. But it had come as a relief in a way, too. She hadn’t chosen Jack out of love. The pregnancy had forced her into a situation she wasn’t prepared for. “No,” she said. “And it’s not because I’m holding a grudge. I think we’ll both be better off moving on and finding people with whom we don’t have so much…history.”

His gaze fell to the carpet for several seconds before he once again met her eyes. Then he nodded. “For what it’s worth, the reason we didn’t work—it was my fault.”

He started to go, but she called him back. “Jack…”

He turned at the door.

“It wasn’t all your fault. I deserve an equal share of the blame.”

His hand rested on the doorknob as he gazed back at her. “Whoever you choose to spend the rest of your life with is going to be very lucky,” he said.

* * *

Patience still had so much to do at her new job that she would’ve asked her father to pick up Ari if she felt she could. But since they weren’t speaking, she had to drive over to the school herself. At least Jack would be flexible with her when Ari needed something. That was one benefit of working for her ex-husband. The pay was another. But being around him again—this time in much different circumstances—was going to require some getting used to.

Fortunately, he was going through so much trying to pick up the pieces after the failure of his second marriage he’d left her alone since he’d said what he did about Kanon. With time, she felt they’d settle into a smooth rhythm and would both benefit from their new arrangement.

Ari was standing at the curb, waiting in the same spot she always did. She shoved her backpack into the foot space of the passenger seat and climbed in right away.

“How was school?” Patience asked.

“Great!”

Putting on her blinker, Patience merged into the traffic streaming out of the lot. “What happened today?”

“Nothing much.” She reached down to get her phone from her backpack. “Same old, same old.”

“How’d you do on your algebra test?”

“Mr. Abernathy hasn’t returned them yet. But I’m sure I got an A.”

Ari’s grades were always good. Patience wasn’t worried. She was just showing interest, trying to get her daughter to talk a little as they drove back to the office. But Ari started playing Words with Friends right away, so Patience let the conversation lapse.

Ari stayed on her phone until Patience had parked in the lot of Jack’s warehouse and turned off the engine. Then she lifted her head, looked around and said, “Wait. What are we doing here?”

“It’s my first day of work, remember?”

Her shoulders drooped. “You’re not off yet?”

Patience gestured at the time on her own phone. “It’s only three-thirty.”

“But I want to play with Bubba.”

Patience got out. “I only have an hour and a half. It won’t be long.”