Maureen woke up, and was confused for a minute. Where am I? she thought.

She smiled lazily, looking over at Jason. He was asleep. She stroked his hair. She looked the room over again. It felt private enough. She tried to listen. She didn't hear any noise. It was a very large house. Right now, it felt possible to live here and have some privacy.

The night had been wonderful. As always. She had an ability to get him to let go, loosen up. His fabled self control was gone when he was with her.

He stirred a little. "Hey," she said, pulling him into her arms.

"You're still here," he murmured.

She laughed, "Why wouldn't I be, silly?"

"Nervous being in this house."

"It's quiet, so far," she said. "But what do you have to do to get a cup of coffee in this house?"

"Go downstairs, or call the cook on the phone," he said.

"I think I'll try – going downstairs," she said.

When they were dressed, they went downstairs. The big living room/dining room area, with its floor length French doors leading out into the garden, was empty, except for the smell of coffee, and fruit and croissants on the sideboard.

"Fancy," she said. "Where is everybody?"

"Still in bed or out already," Jason said. "Sometimes you get lucky." He poured her a cup of coffee.

She sat down next to him, sipping her coffee.

"This is nice," she said. "Oh, I know it's because no one is here."

"True, but not everyone is bad news."

Emily came in. "Good morning, Jason," she said. "Hi, Maureen." She sounded pleasantly surprised.

"See?" Jason said.

"I love you," Maureen said.

"Jason, you are lucky," Emily aid.

"I know it," he said.

Emily drank some coffee and then left. She was on her way to the Edwards' house for an Easter brunch.

The Quartermaine house was quiet, but the Edwards house was not.

Duane always had a party on Easter, and kept that up after Allison had gone. He invited Sarah to it, practically to test himself. He wanted to see if he had the nerve to be around Sarah with his daughters around. He had a detached feeling, as if he were testing some other man.

His daughter Valerie came home from graduate school in New York City, for a long weekend. She had helped with the party last year, and agreed to do so again this year.

When Sarah came to the door, Valerie let her in, and shook her hand and introduced herself. "Weren't you the one injured in the accident?" she asked.

"Yes, I was one. Toby Breyer and I, versus Skye Quartermaine."

"Big case, I remember," Valerie said. "Come on in. This is Yvonne, my sister, you know Toby, this is the rest of her band, Ian the bass player and Wylie her drummer. Then there is Emily, and this is Taryn."

"Nice to meet you. Well, except for Taryn. I already know her."

Everyone chuckled.

"I didn't know you'd be here, Sarah," Taryn said.

"Me neither. Is your mom here?"

"No."

Sarah saw Sean then. She went to talk to him. "Did you bring Skye with you?"

"No, she wasn't going to the house of the lawyer who sued her."

"She's speaking to you!"

"Technically."

"That sounds like a rejection of Duane, not of you."

"She would have turned me down if I'd been going somewhere else."

"Maybe not. She could have said I won't go anywhere with you, or I wouldn't be caught dead with you, or something along those lines."

"That would have been worse," he agreed.

Alexis came in, and introduced her fiancé, Jerry Jacks, to Sarah.

Rick Friel came along. He did not seem to know Alexis and Jerry, so Sarah introduced him. Alexis and Jerry drifted off.

"I'm sorry about what I said the other day," Rick apologized to Sarah.

"We have this pattern," Sarah observed, "You do something and the next time you see me you apologize for that and then commit a new offense."

He laughed. "Will you forgive me as part of this pattern?"

"Sure."

"That's nice of you. Mature, really. I judged things too fast."

"Maybe superficially."

"Yes, that. For sure. See, Duane and I were in each other's weddings, and I really do care about him."

"That's nice. I'd believe you if you knew what his daughter looked like."

He laughed. "I just have a bad memory for faces. Especially kids. They change all the time. I saw Valerie today and her childhood face came back to me. Those pictures on the shelf over there jogged my memory."

Sarah looked toward the shelf he indicated. She had a brief feeling she couldn't describe. Childhood pictures of Valerie and Yvonne. She wasn't sure she wanted to look.

"Were you friends with Duane's wife, too?" she asked.

"Yes, very good," Rick said. "It's a shock Allison left."

"Did you pick between the two or stay friends with her, too?"

"I picked Duane, I guess I'd say. Even after all those years, Allison was more his wife than my friend on her own. These things happen."

"I'm young, but I can figure out that if I cared about a friend, his or her spouse who walked out on them to be with someone else wouldn't be real high on my list."

"That's true," Rick said. "She's not my favorite person about now. I haven't talked to her since. So maybe I judge superficially there, too. But I know Duane, and I suppose it is Allison I did not really know. But we never really know anyone else. Duane and I are so similar. When we were ushers in each others weddings we would never have dreamed that we would turn up twenty-five years later, both single."

"Duane told me what happened to your wife. I'm sorry."

"Thank you. I've been thinking about how unexpected it is, how things may not turn out the way we think they will. My daughter got me thinking about it, saying that I shouldn't have been judging you so quick."

"Your teenaged daughter Amy got you thinking about it?"

"No, no, I have an older daughter. Amanda. She pointed out to me that I wasn't too nice to you."

"Oh, so you told her what you said."

"Sure. She's an adult. Like Valerie."

"Like me."

"OK, but seriously, I couldn't think of say, my daughter Amanda dating Duane."

"If she ever does, you'll have to deal with it. She's an adult."

"You're too smart for me, you know it?"

"I take it that means you're not a lawyer, too."

"Oh, no! I'm a District Manager. For Jax Corporation."

Duane passed through the hall and went into the backyard. He saw Sarah in the distance, talking to Rick Friel.

He took a deep breath and steeled himself for whatever might happen.

His younger daughter, Yvonne, was near Sarah and Rick. Yvonne had a plate and two glasses in her hands, and she was trying to give someone one of the glasses. She had too much in her hands.

Sarah deftly took both of the glasses, saying to Yvonne, "Let me help you with it, sweetie."

Duane froze, heard Rick laughing, Yvonne saying "thank you," and Sarah asking the other guest what he wanted to drink.

He turned back a minute, and his colleague Ted Goldenburg was right there and said hello to him.

He made some small talk with Ted, wondering if what Sarah had said to Yvonne and the way she had helped had come naturally or if Sarah had thought about it a little.

He wouldn't be surprised it if had been the latter.

Finally, he was able to go to Sarah.

"Thank you for coming," he said.

"My pleasure. There sure are a lot of people here."

"It has become a tradition," he said. "Come along," he took her arm and took her over to Valerie. Sarah smiled, pleased with him for his. "This is Valerie," he said. He held her by the waist then. She felt very good about the way he did that to introduce her to his daughter.

"We met," Valerie smiled.

"Valerie let me in," Sarah explained, standing very close to Duane now and looking up at him.

"I'm glad you could come," Valerie said.

"Thank you," Sarah said. "It's a nice party. It's a tradition, I understand."

"Yes, and now I'm the hostess," Valerie said. "Like Harriet Lane or one of substitute first ladies like Dolly Madison for the widower Thomas Jefferson."

"More like Maria Jefferson or Eliza Monroe," Sarah said. "Daughters who took that on. Helen Taft or Margaret Wilson."

"You've got a good memory," Valerie said. "Do you remember everything you see in museums?"

"I have a photographic memory," Sarah said. "It can be a bore for people, sometimes."

"That's interesting, though," Valerie said. "But I thought it was Dolly Madison who stood in for late Mrs. Jefferson."

"I think you're right," Sarah said. "Maybe Polly just stepped in here and there."

"Polly, Dolly, whoever did it," Duane said. "It was a bigger job than Valerie's."

"Oh, come on, Dad, you are more trouble than any President," Valerie joked.

"I can imagine that's so," Sarah said.

Later, Valerie was talking to her friend Quinn and Quinn's new husband, Zander.

"Did you like Ireland?" Valerie asked them. "If you saw any of it, that is, since it was your honeymoon."

"We saw some of it," Zander laughed. "It was beautiful. You ought to go there, sometime."

"I'd like to. Oh, be careful. Sean Monroe is here. Dad knows him now as a colleague."

"No problem. If I'm going to live in this town, I have to do it without decking Sean whenever I see him," Zander said.

"Me too," Quinn said. "And I may not be able to manage it. No, I'm kidding, Val, I wouldn't wreck your party by punching Sean."

"Who even knows if that would wreck it?" Valerie grinned. "That might make it famous. But what do you think? I believe Dad has a girlfriend."

"That's great!" Quinn said. "It's been a long time since your parents split up." She turned to Zander, "Her mom's married again," she explained to him.

"Yeah, and it wasn't pretty," Valerie added. "Not that such a thing ever could be. But Mom says she is happy now. Good for her. But Dad, well, that's still up in the air."

"Do you like her?" Quinn asked. "The new girlfriend, I mean."

"I'll like anyone Dad likes," Valerie said.

Quinn smiled. That was so typical of Valerie.