Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts Page B

same name used by the X-Men’s Wolverine.
    It was instant hero status, given polish when it was discovered that Logan shared Gavin’s obsession with comic books.
    The fact that Logan seemed more interested in talking to her sons than her was probably another plus.
    “If, you know, the Hulk and Spider-Man ever got into a fight, I think Spider-Man would win.”
    Logan nodded as he cut into rare roast beef. “Because Spider-Man’s quicker, and more agile. But if the Hulk ever caught him, Spidey’d be toast.”
    Gavin speared a tiny new potato, then held it aloft on his fork like a severed head on a pike. “If he was under the influence of some evil guy, like ...”
    “Maybe Mr. Hyde.”
    “Yeah! Mr. Hyde, then the Hulk could be forced to go after Spider-Man. But I still think Spidey would win.”
    “That’s why he’s amazing,” Logan agreed, “and the Hulk’s incredible. It takes more than muscle to battle evil.”
    “Yeah, you gotta be smart and brave and stuff.”
    “Peter Parker’s the smartest.” Luke emulated his brother with the potato head.
    “Bruce Banner’s pretty smart, too.” Since it made the kids laugh, Harper hoisted a potato, wagged it. “He always manages to get new clothes after he reverts from Hulk form.”
    “If he was really smart,” Harper commented, “he’d figure out a way to make his clothes stretch and expand.”
    “You scientists,” Logan said with a grin for Harper. “Never thinking about the mundane.”
    “Is the Mundane a supervillain?” Luke wanted to know.
    “It means the ordinary,” Stella told him. “As in, it’s more mundane to eat your potatoes than to play with them, but that’s the polite thing to do at the table.”
    “Oh.” Luke smiled at her, an expression somewhere between sweet and wicked, and chomped the potato off the fork. “Okay.” After the meal, she used the excuse of the boys’ bedtime to retreat upstairs. There were baths to deal with, the usual thousand questions to answer, and all that end-of-day energy to burn off, which included one or both of them running around mostly naked.
    Then came her favorite time, when she drew a chair between their beds and read to them while Parker began to snore at her feet. The current pick was Mystic Horse , and when she closed the book, she got the expected moans and pleas for just a little more.
    “Tomorrow, because now I’m afraid it’s time for sloppy kisses.”
    “Not sloppy kisses.” Gavin rolled onto his belly to bury his face in the pillow. “Not that!”
    “Yes, and you must succumb.” She covered the back of his head, the base of his neck with kisses while he giggled.
    “And now, for my second victim.” She turned to Luke and rubbed her hands together.
    “Wait, wait!” He threw out his hand to ward off the attack. “Do you think my tooth will fall out tomorrow?”
    “Let’s have another look.” She sat on the side of his bed, studying soberly as he wiggled the tooth with his tongue. “I think it just might.”
    “Can I have a horse?”
    “It won’t fit under your pillow.” When he laughed, she kissed his forehead, his cheeks, and his sweet, sweet mouth.
    Rising, she switched off the lamp, leaving them in the glow of the night-light. “Only fun dreams allowed.”
    “I’m gonna dream I get a horse, because dreams come true sometimes.”
    “Yes, they do. ’Night now.”
    She walked back to her room, heard the whispers from bed to bed that were also part of the bedtime ritual.
    It had become their ritual, over the last two years. Just the three of them at nighttime, where they had once been four. But it was solid now, and good, she thought, as a few giggles punctuated the whispers.
    Somewhere along the line she’d stopped aching every night, every morning, for what had been. And she’d come to treasure what was.
    She glanced at her laptop, thought about the work she’d earmarked for the evening. Instead, she went to the terrace doors.
    It was still too cool to sit out,