"What?" Charlotte's eyes were huge. Hank and Matt said nothing.

Joe decided the hell with it. He was thirty-eight. He'd proved himself as a man and a cop. He'd only loved one woman in his entire life and she was standing right in front of him for the last time. He would miss her with every breath he took for the rest of his days.

So he let himself cry.

"I am so sorry, Charlotte. I never meant to put you or the kids in danger. I only wanted… I'm so sorry…" His voice broke and he lowered his head.

"Please don't cry." He felt Hank's little arms squeeze his neck.

"I don't blame you for anything, sweet Joe." Charlotte touched his face with her hand. "It's not your fault."

"Duh! You saved our lives, dude," Matt added.

"You said you were gonna stay!" Joe looked into Hank's face and saw her lower lip tremble. "You promised."

Joe didn't think his heart could break any more than it already had. He was wrong, apparently. "I know I did, champ. I wanted to stay more than I've ever wanted anything. But it's not safe for me to be here anymore. I have to go."

"Can we come with you?"

He almost didn't hear Matt's question above the increasing chaos.

"Can we, Mama?" Hank was squirming in Joe's arms. "Do you think maybe we could go with him? Can we, Mama? Can we?"

Charlotte looked up and gave him one of her smiles, the kind that warmed his insides and made him feel whole. Then she said, "Yes."

Charlotte would not let them go. There'd been so much discussed, so many decisions being made, in that ten-minute car trip, but all she could do was hold her children in her arms and keep her eyes focused on Joe.

He wore the black cap and jacket of a DEA agent The concept was going to take some getting used to. Along with everything else.

"It win not be easy, Charlotte." It was Rich Baum saying it this time, like she hadn't understood it the first five times Joe said it.

"Your life will not be your own for a long while- maybe many years-until the risk is acceptable."

"I understand."

"I want to hear what the kids think," Joe said.

Charlotte had noticed how both Hank and Matt held on to Joe's hands even as they pressed up against her chest They were knotted together, like a family.

"Hank?" Charlotte kissed the top of her daughter's disheveled hairdo. "You won't be able to play in the Minton Little League again and you'll have to leave Daft Elementary and we'll have to get a different house."

"It's okay," she said through her sniffles. "Can we take Hoover?"

Charlotte looked at Joe. The sad smile he gave her nearly made her cry again. She didn't know all the details yet, but she knew that Joe had done what he'd said he'd do. Just moments before, he'd killed a man to save her children.

"You mean that obnoxious ice cream-inhaling moose of yours?" Joe asked.

Hank smiled a little. "Yep. That one."

"Of course you can," Joe said. "How about you, Matt?"

Her son raised his chin and looked calmly at Charlotte, then Joe. "Do I get any say in where we live?"

Joe and Charlotte exchanged a quick glance.

"You got someplace in mind?" Joe asked.

"Maine-it's my favorite state."

Charlotte let out a surprised laugh. She'd never once heard her son mention Maine. "It is?"

"Yeah. The mountains. The ocean. The snow. I want to live in Maine and learn to ski jump."

Rich Baum cleared his throat. "I'm sure there are some nice houses in Maine."

They pulled up to her driveway, and it hit Charlotte that what they'd just been discussing was no longer theoretical. They had ten minutes to get whatever they couldn't live a couple weeks without, as Rich put it, and then they had to leave.

Hank ran inside in her tutu, and Matt walked slowly up the front sidewalk, letting his hands skim along the bushes and the porch railing, as if saying good-bye.

Once upstairs, the first thing Charlotte did was put on the ring that symbolized past, present, and future. She packed a suitcase with some basic clothing, the family's legal papers, her poetry journals, and a couple photo albums.

Then she threw her vibrator in the trash.

Charlotte got Hank out of her tutu and helped her pack things other than her baseball trophies and a pile of sweaters and mittens, explaining that even if they went to Maine right away it was summer there, too. Then she made sure Matt was making progress. She found him sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Are you okay, Matt?" She sat down next to him.

"I'm thinking of Dad."

Charlotte put an arm around him.

"I won't be liyingin his house anymore. I'll miss being close to him like that."

"I will, too."

"But you have Joe now."

Charlotte hoped that what she wanted to say to Matt would come out the right way* "We all have Joe now. That doesn't mean that we don't love your father, because we always will, or that we won't miss him, because we miss him very much.'

"Yeah. Okay.'

"Let's just take it slow. You know that Joe's a good man, Matt."

That's when Matt raised his gaze to Charlotte and nodded seriously. "He's the way coolest man I've ever known-except for Dad."

High praise indeed.

There wasn't enough time to say everything she needed to say to Bonnie, except that she loved her. And Ned hugged her so hard she stopped breathing momentarily, and LoriSue and Justin were crying and LoriSue was promising to take care of everything involved with selling the house, and Hoover was barking, and then they were in a strange car, Joe driving, and Rich Baum was in the car in front of them and two other agents in a car behind them, and Joe told them they were headed to the airport.

About fifteen minutes out of town, once the silence had almost begun to seem normal, Charlotte turned around to check on the kids. They were sound asleep, Hoover between them. Matt had a hand on Hank's shoulder.

Then Charlotte looked over at Joe. He must have sensed her eyes on him, because he turned his head and gave her a Sweet smile.

"You ready for this, Charlotte?"

She nodded. "I'm a strong woman, remember? Are you ready?"

Joe grinned. "I am."

She reached for his hand. She'd be lying if she told him she wasn't scared to death, but it really came down to one simple thing.

"Do you love me, Joe?"

His eyes lanced hers, and he nodded. "Infinity much. I always have."

She smiled at that. "I love you infinity much, too."

Joe pulled her hand to his chest, pressing her palm against his heart "Then the rest is just detail."