Steve slowly pushed Stephanie in the swing. He wondered for a moment if she was too young to be on it, but she fit in the seat okay and he was not pushing too hard. She actually seemed to love it; her gleeful laughs echoed through the park. But he should not have expected anything less; he could already tell Stephanie was fearless.

He smiled slightly as he watched her. At least one of us is having a good day. He had thought taking Stephanie to the park would be a good distraction. After the interview, he had gone back to Caroline's to pick up Stephanie and had then gone home for a shower. While Stephanie was down for her nap, he had tried to do the same, but all he could think about was that idiot interviewer. And then his mind had gone back to the night before and his arguments with Shane - and all of his anger and frustration at getting so close to Lawrence came storming back. So he had given up on trying to sleep and had decided an outing to the park might help distract him.

But even here, the thought of Alamain getting away made him furious. Unbidden, a doubt crept into his thoughts. Maybe he should have gone to Shane rather than busting into Alamain's on his own. Maybe then, they would have gotten the wine bottles. Steve quickly pushed that thought away. The ISA would have just screwed it up anyway. The only chance he had was by going in on his own. And he could have done it if Shane and the ISA had not interfered. He remembered Shane insisting that the ISA had saved Steve's life, but Steve knew he was capable of taking care of himself and that he could have gotten out of there.

"Papa!"

Steve looked down and realized that he had stopped pushing the swing. "Sorry, Little Sweetness," he said and began pushing the swing some more. He tried to focus on Stephanie rather than Alamain, Shane, the ISA, or Simmons Freight.

Of course, he could not ignore Kayla. All of their missed calls left him wondering how angry she would be when they finally talked. He wanted to be there for her. Even if he could not attend the hearing because of that stupid interview, at least he should have been available by phone to give her some support.

But Shane screwed that up too.

"Uncle Steve," came a voice from across the playground.

Steve looked up to see Shawn Douglas racing toward him. He stopped the swing momentarily. "Hey, Lil Man," Steve said, as Shawn Douglas stopped and raised his hand.

"Gimme five!" Shawn D. yelled, even before Steve could. They slapped hands, and Steve laughed. Just as they finished, Bo walked up.

"No wonder," he said, shaking his head. "Don't run off like that, Shawn Douglas - even if it is to see this no-good lout of an uncle of yours."

"You mean this good-looking, rakish devil?" Steve joked.

Bo rolled his eyes, walked over to Stephanie, and lifted her out of the swing. In a teasing voice, he said, "I know it'll be hard, but you can overcome your pop. You'll have your aunts and uncles to help."

Steve crossed his arms, trying to look insulted. "At least her pop isn't named 'Beauregard.' If that's not a handicap, I don't know what is." When Bo laughed, Steve grinned and took Stephanie from Bo's arms. "So what brings you to this fine establishment today?"

Bo leaned over and whispered. "A hyperactive four-year-old. Just you wait. And if you have a boy. . . ." He shook his head. Then he studied Steve closely. "You know you look like hell."

"Tell me about it," Steve said. "It hasn't been the best 24 hours."

As Shawn Douglas took off for the jungle gym, Bo patted Steve on the shoulder. "Tell me what's going on? I assume it's not Kayla. Her hearing shouldn't even be over yet." He paused. "I guess the interview at Simmons didn't go that well."

That's an understatement, Steve thought. "Simmons Junior - or whoever the kid was-"

"That's almost enough right there," Bo said. "Rich kid, family business. . . . You didn't hurt him too bad, did you?"

Steve chuckled. "Just scared him a little. He didn't want to believe a nine-month period of unemployment was due to 'presumed death.'"

Bo laughed. "Same old Steve." He fell silent and studied Steve a little. "But something tells me there's more going on than just a bad job interview with some rich kid that isn't half the man you are."

That was one of the problems with having old friends who knew you extremely well, Steve thought.

"Out with it, Steve," Bo said.

Steve hesitated, not sure how much to say about the night before. He had promised to work with Bo to get Alamain, so Bo might be angry to find out that Steve tried to do the job solo. On top of that, Bo and Shane were friends. Steve decided to be circumspect.

"Let's just say that I'm not seeing eye-to-eye with a certain ex-brother-in-law of yours," he finally said.

"About Lawrence?" Bo seemed to know the score.

Steve nodded. "Look, it's probably not a good thing to talk about it here." He glanced around the park and the parents with their kids. "Let's just say that I'm having a bad day and leave it at that. It's probably mostly because Kayla's away."

Well . . . I think I've got an idea how to fix that," Bo said, breaking into a grin.

Steve was not sure he liked the sound of that. Somehow when he and Bo got ideas, Steve wound up getting lectures from Kayla.

"It's not like that." Bo must have seen the grimace cross Steve's face. "Look, you need a lift. Let's get a bite to eat, drink a couple of beers, and maybe play some pool."

"I cant," Steve said. "Or did you miss the part about Kayla being away. I've got to watch Stephanie."

"You can leave her with my mom. I'm just talking a couple of hours."

It sounded tempting, but Steve had already pushed his luck with Caroline the night before. "I don't know-"

"Come on," Bo said. "Ma loves to babysit. And it's just a few hours. I'll won't even keep you out past your bedtime."

"Har de har har." Steve rolled his eyes. But Bo was right about one thing; a little break would be nice. And if Steve spent the night at home, he would probably just stew over everything that had gone wrong since Kayla left. "All right, but just a few hours and only if Caroline's okay with it."