Feeling both dejected and hopeful at the same time, Jo drove her badly damaged car the short distance to her small apartment. "I don't feel like cooking tonight," she told Jamie. "Let's just go to Subway."

"Yay!" Jamie exclaimed.

Within moments, they were seated at a table with submarine sandwiches and potato chips before them. "So, what did you think of that guy?" Jamie asked her mother.

Jo shrugged. "He seemed nice. At least he wasn't angry that I hit his car."

"Our car sure got a lot worse damage," Jamie pointed out.

"Yeah," Jo agreed. "But if you rear end someone, the police automatically consider it to be your fault for following too close behind them."

"Were you following too close behind him?"

"I didn't think I was, but I guess I was wrong," Jo muttered gloomily. To her surprise, she was hungry enough to finish her entire meal. After they finished eating, she and her daughter went back home, where Jo watched a couple of hours of TV, quickly checked her email, and went to bed.

The following day, she called her job and told them she'd be a couple of hours late, called her insurance company and told them what had happened, then took the car in to the mechanic's and arranged for a rental car.

During the two weeks it took for her car to be repaired, Jo was so preoccupied that she put the encounter with Doug at the back of her mind, but on the day she went to pick her car up from the mechanic's, it occurred to her that he'd never called her. I knew he wouldn't, she told herself, swallowing the lump of disappointment in her throat.

That Friday night, she and Jamie went to WalMart to pick up some household items they needed, and as always, they checked out the bin of five dollar DVDs before leaving. "I thought I saw a copy of 'Saw IV' in here a minute ago, but I can't find it now," Jamie complained.

"You and your slasher movies," Jo teased.

"C'mon, Mom, you know you like them just as much as I do," Jamie replied with a grin.

"Here's a copy," said a helpful voice. Jo and Jamie turned to see a brown-haired boy a couple of years older than Jamie who had a friendly smile.

"Are you about ready to go, Clay?" asked a man's voice from a couple of aisles over.

"In a minute, Dad," the boy replied.

A moment later, Doug appeared. He and Jo stared at one another in startled silence for just a moment, and then he grinned and stepped toward her. "Jo! Small world, isn't it?"

"Hi, Doug," Jo said coolly.

"I meant to call you, really, I did," Doug continued. "I just got so busy, work and all..." He shrugged helplessly while Clay and Jamie just stared at one another, perplexed.

"It's all right," Jo heard herself say. "I've been pretty busy myself."

"Well, is your car fixed now?"

"Yeah, finally." Jo rolled her eyes. "I just got it back a few days ago."

"You know, I feel pretty bad about that," Doug said softly.

"No reason for you to," Jo replied. "It wasn't your fault."

"At least let me buy you a coffee," said Doug.

"Well...all right." Suddenly Jo felt her urge to get home melt away in response to Doug's charming smile.

"So, are you an every-other-weekend Dad?" Jo asked Doug as they sat in the diner drinking coffee and talking.

"I'm a full-time Dad." Doug laughed. "Clay's Mom was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995."

"That's terrible!" Jo exclaimed. "So you've pretty much raised him alone, then."

"I've had a lot of help," Doug told her. "Mary Frances' sister Grace has been wonderful with Clay. She's been almost like a second mother to him. I don't know how I ever would have made it without her."

"Family is important," Jo agreed. "Jamie was only four when her Dad died. It was very hard for both of us that first year. She was too young to understand. She just kept crying and asking when her Daddy was going to come home."

"Clay was just a baby," Doug said. "Mary Frances was still nursing him. After she died, I had a really hard time getting Clay to drink formula."

"That's so sad, that he was too young to remember his Mom," Jo reflected. "At least Jamie does have some vague memories of her Dad."

They finished their coffee and kept on talking, until suddenly Jo noticed the time and was a little bit alarmed to see how late it was. "I really need to be getting back home," she said. "But I really enjoyed talking to you, and thanks for the coffee."

"It was my pleasure," Doug replied. "And I enjoyed talking to you as well."

Doug and Clay walked Jo and Jamie back to their car, and Jo felt really happy as she drove back home.