A Mother's Secret by Janice Kay Johnson

sitting there in front of her house. Apparently he had a streak of paranoia. Of course she hadn’t seen anything but the confident, successful man he’d made of himself.
    No, but the fact that her very presence could shake that confidence had been enough reason for ending their relationship. He didn’t like the way she made him feel emotionally naked, and that was yet another gift of hers.
    It was just too bad that seeing her again had reminded him how unbeatable their lovemaking had been.
    Daniel got out, locked the car and walked up to her front door. No doorbell. He glanced at his watch as he knocked—5:07 p.m. He might look eager, but at least he wasn’t early. And why shouldn’t he be eager to see his son, after having been cheated of the first years of Malcolm’s life?
    Daniel braced himself when he heard footsteps and thedoor opened. Even so, he was stunned by the impact the mere sight of her had on him. Yeah, she was beautiful, but he saw beautiful women every day and wasn’t interested. Joe was right: there was just something about her.
    Over a spaghetti-strap camisole she wore a cream-colored, loose-weave sweater that came close to sliding off one shoulder, leaving bare her long graceful neck and the delicate line of her collarbone. Hiding his reaction, Daniel thought it was damn sad when a woman’s collarbone was enough to turn him on.
    She wore her rich, brown hair bundled at her nape, giving her more than ever the look of the ballerina she’d once been.
    “Hi,” she said. “Come on in. Mal’s in the tub. He went to a friend’s house after school and managed to get filthy. Evan’s family has two sheepdogs, and when the dogs started digging in a flower bed the boys decided to help them.” She grimaced. “On the upside, they had a really good time.”
    He laughed. “And the downside?”
    She grinned, her initial caution apparently overcome. “None for them. But I’m betting Evan’s mother won’t step inside to answer the phone again and leave them unwatched for even a minute.”
    Put like that…Should preschoolers ever be left unattended? “She shouldn’t have.”
    “The backyard is fully fenced, and the dogs are big sweeties with the kids. Besides, Mal and Evan both are responsible for their age.” She cleared her throat. “Usually.”
    His lips quirked again.
    Her gaze touched on his mouth, then shied away. “Um…Go stick your head in the bathroom if you want. I’d better check on dinner.”
    Daniel nodded and watched her walk away. Worn overblack leggings, her sweater came to midthigh but was so thin it clung. She was curvier than he remembered her. Maybe carrying a baby had done that. He felt a flash of…oh, hell, not anger this time, but regret, that he hadn’t seen her ripe with child.
    He turned down the short hall. The bathroom door stood open and he heard a strange sound. Blub, blub, blub.
    Startled, he stopped for a minute before realizing that the kid was blowing bubbles.
    He stepped into the doorway. “Hey, Malcolm.”
    The boy had been floating on his stomach. He rolled and sat up, skinny and pale. And, yeah, freckled. “Hi, Mr. Kane! Did’ya see? I can put my face in the water. Mom says I can take swim lessons real soon. I can already float and everything. You wanna see?”
    Daniel had barely gotten a, “Sure,” out before Malcolm rolled over again and indeed floated on his belly. The big, claw-foot tub looked a lot like the one in Daniel’s own bathroom in his 19th-century “painted lady” house. Rebecca had really loved that tub, and the fact that they both fit in it. They’d soaked the floor a few times, pushing waves over the rim when she rode him.
    The memory was enough to make him shift uncomfortably. The next moment, he frowned.
    She must have gone hunting for her own deep, old-fashioned tub. It wouldn’t have come with this dump of a house. Had she wanted a bathtub big enough to share with someone else? The idea pissed him off, even though he knew his