With Genny's help, Lucy picked out the perfect dress for the gala. Unlike when she found the green dress in a storefront window and knew she had to have it, it took them four stores and lots of trying on different dresses for Lucy to find the one she liked. It had long sleeves and was a silver shimmering material that made Lucy sparkle when she moved. It wasn't Tim's favorite color, but it made her feel good and it was practically backless, which she thought he might appreciate. Standing in the dressing room at the mall, Lucy could picture herself spinning on the dance floor with Tim. She was also sure that it would get Ashley's attention and she hoped the woman would be jealous.

But dancing and jealousy would have to wait until the gala on Wednesday. When Lucy returned from the mall, she found Tim in the backyard dishing out macaroni and cheese and hot dogs from the grill to the boys at her new outdoor dining set. He had even made broccoli to go with the meal. Lucy wanted to leap into Tim's arms the moment she saw him, perhaps because of the memories of making out with him in the rain around that outdoor table, but she restrained herself. Had that kiss happened just last night? Had it really only been less than 24 hours since they had spent the night together?

While the boys ate and talked about what they did in school that day, Lucy and Tim exchanged glances and smiles across the table. At one point Lucy could have sworn Tim was undressing her with his eyes. She was basically doing the same. When the boys were done, TIm volunteered to take Tyler home so that Genny wouldn't have to go out again. In reality he thought it might take less time for him to do that than to wait for her to pick Tyler up. He promised he would return as soon as possible. To keep her hands busy, Lucy started cleaning up from dinner. Her mind dreamed about what it would be like to show off dancing with Tim in front of Ashley at the gala.

While Lucy cleaned, Alex was in the next room watching TV. Lucy could hear the faint sounds of some cartoon in the background. She hummed to herself as she washed the plates.

"Hey, mom, I'm done with my juice," Alex said, bringing in his cup. He put it on the counter next to the sink.

"Thanks, bud."

"Can I have a cookie?"

Lucy nodded. "One cookie."

"Two? They're kind of small and I ate all my vegetables."

"That's true, I did see that," Lucy commented. She was secretly impressed that Tim even bothered to serve the boys any type of vegetable with dinner.

"Yeah. All of my broccoli. Yuck. Tim told me and Tyler we had to eat them all."

"Well, then I guess eating all of your vegetables requires two cookies. Go ahead."

"Thanks!"

Alex walked over to the closet and pulled a box of chocolate chip cookies out. He took out two cookies and then two more. Putting the box back, he walked over to Lucy with two cookies in one hand and the other two in his other hand.

"And what are you doing with four cookies?" Lucy asked with a smile.

"These two are for you."

Lucy was overcome with pride at how sweet Alex was. "Thank you. But right now my hands are wet. Can you leave them on my napkin over there?'

"Sure!" Alex responded, dumping the two cookies halfway on the napkin Lucy pointed to. A few crumbs skittered to the floor. "I'm going to go back and watch TV now."

"Ok."

"Hey mom?" Alex asked as he popped a cookie into his mouth.

"Yes?"

"Do you like TIm?" He asked her with a piece of the cookie half chewed in his mouth.

Lucy was so taken aback that she didn't even scold him for talking with his mouth full.

"Of course I like Tim," she stumbled. "We're friends."

"But do you want him to be your boyfriend like Chris was?"

"I…why do you ask?"

"Cause I like Tim. I think he'd be a good boyfriend. Way better than Chris. You're always smiling around him and he takes time to play catch with me and help me build my Legos and he comes to my baseball games. Chris never came to a game in New York. I'm just saying, if you want him to be your boyfriend, I'd be happy about it."

"Well, thank you, honey. He is a very good friend. But you know he has to go back home to California, right? And California is very far away. We talked about that, remember?"

"I know. I'm going to be sad when he leaves."

"Me too, sweetheart," Lucy said and she meant it more than her son would ever know.

"Does he have to go?"

"Well, Tim lives in California, honey. He's just here for a long vacation."

"Yeah, but he could move here. He could just keep staying in the little house in our backyard," Alex suggested.

Lucy laughed. "It doesn't exactly work that way, honey. Tim has a job and his own house."

"He has a job here too at the police station."

"I know it's confusing, but…"

"It's grown-up stuff," Alex finished.

"Yeah, grown-up stuff. We should just be grateful that we get to spend the time with him that we do."

Alex sighed. "Ok, well, don't forget about your cookies.'

"I won't."

Alex raced back into the living room. Lucy sighed. She felt like she dodged a bullet in their conversation in admitting the true nature of her and Tim's relationship, but the conversation also made her feel sad. Every time she thought she was ok with the idea of Tim leaving, then something would come up and it hurt her to think about it all over again.

There was a knock on the back door and Lucy was pulled from her thoughts. She looked over at the French doors to see Tim standing outside. She beckoned for him to come in and he did.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey yourself."

"I missed you today," Tim admitted, finally able to say what he hadn't been able to say earlier when the boys were around. "Where's Alex?"

"I missed you today, too. He's in the living room."

Tim took the opportunity to give her a quick peck on the cheek. He wished he could have given her a proper greeting, but the living room and kitchen were way too close together and Tim didn't want Alex to see them.

"Here, I'll help you dry," Tim said, motioning to the dishes.

"Thanks," Lucy said as Tim grabbed a dish towel and stood right beside her at the sink.

"You're welcome. You know, I couldn't stop thinking about getting my hands on you today," Tim said quietly.

"Oh yeah?"

"Mhmm. The whole time I was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's office with Tyler this morning I was thinking about sliding my hands down your body to that one spot that makes you make that little sound."

Lucy could feel herself blushing. Somehow in all of their years together Chris had never found that spot. Tim found it in just one night.

"I had a hard time concentrating today, too," Lucy admitted.

"I can't wait until tonight."

"And what's happening tonight?" Lucy asked, giving him her best innocent look.

"I thought…I mean, I figured we were going to…that we could…you know, have a repeat of last night."

Lucy cracked a smile and Tim knew she was just teasing him. "I'll text you after I put Alex to sleep. He thinks you should be my boyfriend, you know."

"Oh yeah?"

"That's what he told me."

"Am I your boyfriend?" Tim asked.

"Well, I don't know if we need to use labels, but I know that for the time you're here I don't want to see anybody else so…"

"So, I guess that means you're my girlfriend," Tim concluded.

"I guess so."

Tim wished he could lean over and kiss her.

"By the way," Lucy continued. "Thank you for watching the boys this evening."

"It's no problem. What were you two ladies up to anyway? Genny was very coy about the whole thing when she asked me to watch the boys."

"I needed to buy a new dress," Lucy stated.

"Another new dress, huh? For what? Our fifth date?"

"You could call it that. It's for the wildlife rehabilitation center gala on Wednesday."

"I'm sorry, the what?"

"It's a big fundraiser for this center that takes in injured animals from all over the state. I guess they do a big gala every year. They rent out a place and people get all dressed up and there's fancy food and dancing. My Aunt Mae gave them lots of money over the years so now I have two tickets and Ashley mentioned she was going at the PTA meeting today and she wanted Genny to give her your number so she could ask you to be here date for to the gala, but I said you were going with me and now that I think about it, it was very middle school mean girl drama, but now we have to go to the gala so I was wondering if you would…"

"Yes, I will go to the gala with you," Tim said with a smile.

"Really? You don't mind?"

"Do I mind seeing you in a beautiful dress and having you in my arms?" He paused. "Besides, technically, I still owe you a dance."

"There's no technically about it. A debt is owed."

Tim laughed and had half a mind to twirl her around the kitchen, but then Alex bursted in.

"Can I have another cookie?" He asked, having no idea what he was interrupting.

Lucy and Tim had their second sleepover that night and their third the next night. They were both tired from lack of sleep, but were also both extremely satisfied and generally happier. The only thing Lucy did not like was that every morning she would wake up alone. She understood why. Heck, it was her own rule that she didn't want Alex finding out about her and Tim being together, but she wanted to know what it felt like to actually wake up with him.

When Wednesday evening arrived, Lucy was running late. She had a client who was going through an unexpected trauma so Lucy had squeezed a session with him in at the end of her normal day. Then the bathroom sink in her master bathroom started leaking on the floor. Tim wasn't home and Lucy didn't want to bother him so she found herself laying on her back on the bathroom floor trying to figure the leak out. When she couldn't, despite watching several YouTube videos, Lucy just kept the water off and put a towel underneath just in case. Genny had thankfully offered to take Alex and Tyler home right from school so Lucy didn't have to worry about him. As she carried an armful of soaking wet towels that she had used to clean up in the initial leak to the laundry room, Lucy's phone buzzed. As she went to fish her phone out of her back pocket, several of the towels fell to the floor. She cursed the towels at the same time that she looked to see who was calling. It was Tim.

"Hi," she said into the phone. "I'm almost ready."

"No, no you're not," Tim said. "I can tell by the way you answered the phone. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, it's just been hectic around her today."

"Yeah, same for me."

"Are you still at the station?" Lucy asked, picking up on some background noise.

"Yeah. There was a dead body found on the beach."

"What? That's awful!" Lucy exclaimed.

"I told you the ocean was full of dead people. Anyway, Chip is on vacation and they don't get many homicides around here, especially on the beach so they asked me to use my expertise and to take a look and I got invested so…yeah, I'm still at the station doing some paperwork."

"Are you ok?"

Tim liked that she asked. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Was it a…a homicide?" Lucy questioned.

"That part remains unclear until an autopsy can be done. I didn't see any glaring signs of homicide like knife marks or a gunshot wound. I've got a call into some scientists to talk about currents and wave patterns around here. Plus we're combing through missing persons reports to see if we can figure out who this person is."

"You're thinking the body might have just washed up," Lucy commented.

"There's a strong possibility. You know, I bet you would be a good detective."

"I've heard that before from some of my NYPD friends. To be honest, ndercover work has always fascinated me," Lucy said.

"That's a tough gig. But anyway, our victim could have been a person ending their own life or a boating or swimming accident. It'll be a while before we know more. But I didn't call to talk about dead bodies with you. I called to say I'm going to be late to the gala."

"Same," Lucy said, staring at the pile of towels still in her arms. "Look, you're already on the other side of town. It doesn't make sense for you to come all the way over here to get me. Why don't we just meet at the hall?"

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm not giving you the full date service if I don't pick you up."

"I don't mind at all," Lucy said.

"Ok. Good. That'll save me some time. I picked up my suit rental so I have it with me in my truck."

"You rented a suit?" Lucy asked, surprised.

"You said this is a fancy gala. I didn't bring a full suit to LA."

"I'm impressed."

"Wait until you see me in it," Tim teased.

"I can't wait."

"Alright, let me get off the phone so I can finish what I need to do. I'll see you soon."

"Bye," Lucy said. As she hung up the phone, she looked down at the two towels that were already on the floor. She dumped the rest of the towels on top of them and went off to her bedroom to start getting ready.