"This is great!" Jo exclaimed. "I almost feel like I'm back in New York again!"

"Nothing like this in Oklahoma City, that's for sure!" Blair agreed. The three women and Jamie were looking around in a lingerie shop.

"So, Blair, do you think Ralph would like me in this?" Natalie held up a sheer black lace negligee. After much effort, she'd finally gotten herself back down to her pre-pregnancy weight.

"Hon, I think he'd love it!" Blair replied.

Jo walked over to where Jamie was looking around in another section of the store. "I was just wondering what Andy would think of this outfit." The teenager sighed. "I miss him so much."

Jo gave her daughter a quick hug. "I know you do, sweetie, and if it was meant to be, you'll be together again someday."

Jamie soon got bored and walked over to where Doug stood watching Bethany ride the small carousel. "Havin' fun?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I guess so. I haven't been in a mall this big in, like, forever!"

Doug laughed. "I don't see how anybody could find their way around in it without gettin' lost as a bug!"

The carousel ride came to an end. "Can I ride again, Daddy? Please?" Bethany begged.

"Sure, why not?" Doug slipped another coin into the slot, and Bethany cheered as the carousel began to move once again.

The friends finished shopping and carried their purchases out to the parking lot. Doug got behind the wheel of his car and turned the ignition, but nothing happened. "Well, that's just great!" he muttered.

Glancing around the parking lot, he spotted a middle-aged man with longish brown hair. He wore jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. "Sir? Sir!" Doug called. The man turned around and looked at him.

"Will you please jump me off? I already have the cables."

"Certainly."

Doug took his jumper cables out of the trunk and handed them to the man, and within minutes, Doug's car was cranked. "Thank you so much!" he told the other man.

The man smiled. "It is not a problem." He spoke with a slight, but unmistakable, accent.

"You sound like you aren't from around here," Doug remarked.

"I am originally from Moscow," the man told him. "The United States has been my home since 1995. I am Arkady Renko."

"Pleased to meet you." Doug shook Arkady's hand. "I'm Doug Norman, and this is my wife Jo and our daughters, Jamie and Bethany."

"Jamie." Arkady smiled. "I believe you met my two older daughters yesterday."

Jamie's eyes widened. "You're Julia and Lydia's Dad?"

"I am."

"That's, like, so cool! I really enjoyed hanging out with them."

"They like you, too. It is a shame you have to go back home so soon."

Jamie grimaced. "Yeah, I have to be back for school. I've got another year to go after this one."

"Well, perhaps you can visit us before you have to leave. We would love to have you over for dinner."

"Thanks. I'd like that, too."

"Close your eyes," Jo said to her husband. "No peeking!"

"Now you've got me really curious," Doug chuckled. He complied, and Jo quickly slipped out of her pajamas and into the lacy red negligee she'd bought that day. "Now open them," she commanded.

Doug did so, and his eyes went wide. He whistled. "Wow, babe!"

Jo smiled. "Do you like it?"

"I love it!"

She saw that his eyes were smoldering with passion. She spun around so he could see her whole body, and he grabbed her, pulled her close, and began kissing her mouth passionately. Their tongues danced together as they lay back on the bed, Doug tugging Jo's thong down while she pulled his underwear off. Free at last, Doug slipped a condom on and they joined their bodies together.

"Hi, Jamie," Julia said as she opened the door to admit her guest. "You remember Lydia, and this is my Mom, my Dad, Sofia, and Kady."

"Hello, darling." Julia's mother's voice was warm and her smile was genuine as she shook Jamie's hand. "I'm Irina Renkova, and my husband's name is Arkady."

"We met in the parking lot of the mall a few days ago," Arkady told his wife. "I helped her father start his car."

"It's nice to meet you, Irina," said Jamie.

"Please come in and have a seat," Irina replied. "Dinner is almost ready."

Jamie sat down on the sofa between Sofia and Kady, who were both playing with their cell phones. Julia kicked Sofia's leg. "Say hi to Jamie, Sofia. You too, Kady."

They both looked up and said a brief hello, then returned to their games.

Over dinner, Irina told Jamie how she and her husband had met. "It was 1983, and Andropov was in power. Arkady was an investigator with the police department. He was trying to solve a multiple murder. I had been friends with one of the victims, so he interviewed me."

"He helped me defect to the United States, and when he left to go back home, I thought I'd never see him again. Eight years later, I was working for Radio Liberty in Germany when he called me and said he wanted to meet up with me again."

"I'd never forgotten her." Arkady continued his wife's story. "When I heard her voice on the radio one day, I knew I had to see her again. Luckily, I had to travel to Germany to investigate an international crime, and we were reunited there."

Irina smiled and clasped her husband's hand. "We've been together ever since then."

"How romantic!" Jamie exclaimed, thinking of Andy and how long it seemed since she'd last seen him.