"I thought it might be fun, you know, to teach Zoe about letters." Mara shrugged. "I found it in the closet in our room."

"You any good?"

"I'm not bad." Mara smiled.

"Bet I can beat you."

"Oh, I don't know-I do a mean triple-triple. I know all the words that begin with x."

"All of them?" Ryan cocked an eyebrow.

"Try me."

"I'll take you up on that challenge."

"Deal." Mara smiled even more broadly.

Ryan tucked the box under his arm along with his skateboard and began to push Cody's stroller. He lifted Zoe on his shoulders.

"Giddyap, Ryan!" Zoe said.

"Hang on, Zo."

The four of them walked down the hill toward the minideath match.

"WILLIAM ADDISON PERRY! MADISON ALEXANDRA PERRY!" Ryan roared.

William and Madison immediately froze.

"That's enough of that!" Ryan scolded.

"You're not really mad, are you, Ryan?" Madison asked, releasing her hold on William and getting up to take his free hand.

"Me! Me! Me!" William whined, trying to find something of Ryan's to hold on to. With no available hand in sight, he grabbed the edge of his big brother's T-shirt.

"Easy, big guy," Ryan said.

They headed back to the Range Rover. Ryan stashed his skateboard in the back and they drove the half mile back to the house.

"Sorry they're so out of control. It's really not their fault. No one's ever taught them any boundaries."

"The kids?" Mara asked. "Don't worry, I've taken care of worse."

Mara told Ryan about the neighborhood nightmare-eight-year-old Tommy Baker, who was famous for locking himself in the bathroom for hours, only to emerge as his parents were pulling back into the driveway. At which time he would pee on the floor, leaving a disgusting puddle for her to mop up.

"It happened every time I babysat him and his parents never even tipped!"

"Bastards," Ryan said.

"Look," Mara whispered, turning to look at the backseat, where the children were all sleeping. "Like angels. You'd never think-" But she cut herself off-they were still his siblings.

Ryan glanced at them from the rearview mirror. "Angels with dirty faces," he surmised, giving Mara a warm smile.

They pulled up to the driveway. Mara carried Cody to his crib, and Ryan walked the rest of the sleepy trio back to their rooms.

"I've got to make a couple of calls, then I'll be in the kitchen," he said. "Think you're up for a game later, Madame X?"

"Yeah, sure," Mara agreed.

"Don't stand me up, now," he teased.

"I won't," she promised, flushing a little.

She tucked the kids in, and after she was satisfied the four were safely in dreamland, she tiptoed down the stairs toward the kitchen.

"Hey, they're totally out-do you want to bust out the Scrabble? Ryan? Ryan?" she called, a little short of a stage whisper. But he was nowhere to be found. She wandered in and out of the darkened rooms for a while, thinking he might magically pop out of one.

But he wasn't anywhere. Mara felt her good mood deflate. A wave of homesickness hit her in the middle of the perfectly spotless kitchen when she saw a Post-it on a French cabinet that she could only assume was hiding the fridge: M: Sorry, duty called. Scrabble another time?-R Of course he had better things to do. Someone to do, more likely, Mara thought with a tiny twinge of jealousy. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.

"Jimmy? You still up? It's me, Mara."

back at resort, jacqui certainly has an eye for fabrics.

JACQUI WALKED FAST THROUGH THE CROWD, NOT LETTING those rugby stripes out of her sight. Her heart was beating quickly; she was short of breath. There was no way, was there? This was fate. Kismet. This was meant to be. It was what she had been dreaming about since the day she woke up alone in her room in So Paolo. . . . Those broad shoulders, the fine, baby soft hairs on the neck . . . She had kissed that neck many times. . . .

With trembling fingers she put her hand on his back. "Luca?"

Jacqui couldn't believe her eyes. It was him! Luca, with his pale, freckled skin, glossy honey-colored hair, and beautiful green eyes behind those nerdy-but-hip eyeglasses.

"Luca?" she choked.

"Excuse me." Luke van Varick smirked, turning to face her. His eyes widened and he blinked for a minute, unsure of what to do. Then he broke into a lopsided grin.

"Jacarei!" Luke said as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. "What the HELL are you doing here?"

"I work here!" Jacqui laughed, so happy she was almost screaming. Luca! Here! In the Hamptons!

"Here?" he asked, motioning to the floor with the straw from his gin and tonic. He was swaying a little and Jacqui smelled the alcohol on his breath.

"No, up the road. I'm an au pair."

"How cool is that?" Luke laughed. "I didn't know you worked with kids. I thought you were just a shopgirl."

This is making no sense, Jacqui thought. We haven't seen each other in two months and all he wants to do is chitchat? What about all the stuff they did in So Paolo?

"Listen, you wanna get out of here?" Luke asked as his eyes roamed around the room.

"Si," Jacqui replied. That was more like it. She took his hand. She loved him. Her Luca! He could lead her anywhere.

A few minutes later Jacqui hung on as Luke sped down the Montauk Highway to his parents' home in Bridgehampton. The place was as expansive as the Perry homestead, and Luke showed her his private entrance and the four-bedroom suite in his "wing." It was a classic bachelor pad, with a vintage Foosball table, a Miss PacMan game console, dartboards, a basketball hoop, and dirty laundry strewn around the carpet. He pressed a button on a remote, and a sixty-inch television materialized from the floor.

Jacqui sat on the edge of his bed, looking around at all of his things-his soccer trophies, his G4 computer, his bulletin board studded with photos from his travels around the world. So this was where he lived. This was where he slept. She drank it all in-intent to know as much as she could about the guy who'd finally opened her heart and made her feel all jittery inside.

Luke stood in front of her, holding an open bottle of Absolut in one hand. He took a swig. His other hand was underneath his shirt, scratching his stomach. He stared at her hungrily. "You know, you're even more beautiful than I remembered," he said, putting down the bottle and reaching for the light switch.

"What else do you remember?" Jacqui asked with a playful lilt.

With the lights snuffed out, Luke splayed himself spread-eagle on top of the goose-down comforter. Jacqui curled up next to him. He tossed an arm around her and she snuggled on his chest. She listened to him breathe, happy to be so close to him again.

"I remember this," he said, tracing a finger on her cheek.

Soon she felt his hand move down toward her breast, cupping it over her shirt, then slowly inch its way down underneath the neckline. She wasn't wearing a bra, and his fingers were cold on her skin.

"Oh . . . Luca," she said, turning to kiss him fully on the mouth.

He pulled her up on him, holding her close so she could feel him getting excited.

They kissed, slobbering with open mouths, so quickly and urgently that Jacqui could barely catch her breath. All the while Luke tugged at her top. Finally he pulled it over her head and threw it to the corner of the room.

She realized she was trembling a little-she'd missed him so much. It was everything she ever wanted and everything she had been yearning for when he left her in So Paolo.

She sat up, looking down on him. They held hands and stared at each other.

A trick of the moonlight lit up a photograph on his nightstand.

It was her Luca, smiling, with his arm around a girl.

Huh?

Jacqui stopped and released his hands. He reached up to touch her face, but she pushed his hand away. "Who's that?" she asked, pointing.

He craned his neck to see what she was talking about.

"Oh. Nobody." He shrugged, gently laying the photo down. "Just someone I knew before I met you."

Jacqui felt a little better. But somehow the moment had passed. She rolled off him and slid underneath the sheets.

He joined her, spooning her so that her back was pressed against his chest. He began to kiss between her shoulder blades, her most sensitive part. His hand awkwardly unbuttoned her fly. His fingers reached south.

"Not tonight. Okay, baby?" Jacqui asked, grasping his hand right above her waist.

"Uhmmmm?" Luke asked sleepily. "Are you sure?"

"Uh-huh."

"Mm-kay."

They were quiet for a moment, and Jacqui listened to his soft breathing.

"Luca? I love you," she whispered. It was something they never had time to say to each other during their two weeks in So Paolo.

But Luke was already snoring.

eliza is red, white, and definitely blue.

"ELIZA-WE'RE GOING . . .," SUGAR CALLED OVER, interrupting the conversation. She stood outside the circle, tapping a kitten heel.

"We'll meet you out front," Poppy said, ignoring the fawning looks from the throng. The sisters stalked off, fully aware that all eyes were on their perfectly sculpted backsides.

"Sorry, guys. See y'all later?" Eliza asked.

"Where are you staying?" Lindsay asked, miming a phone call.

"My uncle's place-uh, in Sagaponack. He's not listed-but don't worry, I'll be in touch," Eliza said, putting down her drink. "Sugar! Poppy! Wait up!"

She ran after them, catching up just as the twins stopped to pose for the paparazzi stationed outside the entrance. She waited hesitantly just out of flashbulb range.

"Hey-how 'bout one with your friend?" a photographer asked, noticing Eliza and shooing her into the picture. Eliza found herself wedged between the twins, giving them apologetic smiles.

"Beautiful! Three of a kind!" The photographers wolf-whistled their approval.

"That's enough," Poppy decided when the valet pulled up with their Mercedes SUV. He held open the door and handed her a ticket stub. "Oh no . . . I left my wallet at home," she said patting her purse and looking around expectantly.

"Don't look at me," Sugar said. "You know I never carry cash."

"Here, I got it," Eliza offered, rooting in her Louis Vuitton Epi pouchette. "How much?"

"Forty dollars, miss."

Holy . . . That was, like, half a day's salary. Eliza paid the parking fee while Poppy slid behind the wheel.

"Shotgun," Sugar called.

The girls piled into the SUV and Poppy started poking at the GPS screen. "I can never figure this thing out," she muttered to herself just as Justin came blaring through the speakers. Sugar had dated him for a minute, and she liked to say this song was for her, even if it wasn't true. Sugar stuck her hands through the sunroof and whooped loudly as they made their big exit.