"I should be back the first week of January. I could be back sooner, but I'll be on crutches." I wouldn't mind," Bob said, "but between HR and legal....." The same people who shot down me working from home," I said."Yeah ... It wasn't always like this, Stoney," he sighed. "We used to be able to act like adults and take responsibility and get things done. Now I can't fart without HR pointing to something in a policy manual that I've violated some new federal regulation." What about my Central. They nodded. Summer said, "First week in March."I looked at Todd, "What are you doing?"He shook his head, "Some of my fraternity brothers rented a house on the beach in Daytona. I kind of planned to chip in and crash there. It's about a mile from where the crowds will be and where all the motel parties are supposed to be going on. We can walk and avoid any DUIs."The three girls looked at each other. Stacy teased, "Is there room for two co-eds and a cougar?"Todd shrugged, "I could find out fast. I didn't even bother to unpack, justgrabbed a jacket and hurried back down to the lobby and startedwalking. I had no plan, not idea of what to do or where to go. I let myfancy direct me along this street or down that alley. I stopped for amug of tea and bacon sandwich full of brown sauce in a tiny cafe nearthe railway station, I browsed shop windows and touched knick knacksand souvenirs in many of the shops making their livings from thetourists that would fill the town as the holiday season. My cell phone rang, scaring me half out of my wits. It was a low tone, quiet enough that I wouldn’t have heard it if I’d been more than a foot or two away. I rose and collected it from the coffee table. The display screen read ‘Rhiannon’. Damn. I’d forgotten about Rhiannon. It was two a.m. ‘Sorry to wake you,’ Joe said the instant I told him hello. ‘I wasn’t sleeping.’ My heart raced. ‘Is everything okay?’ ‘Better than okay. We have a daughter.’ I heard the smile in his voice. As it was I.