Except for another trip to Wren’s pediatrician, Chio hadn’t been out of the house, and the outdoors beckoned her as enticingly as the smell of Cinnabons in a shopping mall.

• When she couldn’t stand the confinement any longer, she set Wren’s sleeping nest on the couch, and as Ian returned from wherever he’d been hiking, she tucked the drowsy baby inside and grabbed her coat.

“See you later.” He stood in the entryway, the scent of pine drifting off him as other men smelled of expensive cologne. “Where are you going?” “Out! I can’t stand being cooped up inside another minute.” When Ian told her she couldn’t go out and leave him with the baby, she spun toward him; one finger pointed toward his head. “And she’d better be alive when I get back!” Short of tackling her, he could do nothing to keep her inside. On his trip to town, Ian had dropped by the heating and cooling provider to finalize his paternity leave, which he had been putting off. Chio needed all the help she could get. There were other HVAC technicians to take care of the furnace/heater tune-ups and boiler repairs that were in plenty at that time of the year. One heating contractor taking leave did not spell doom for any homeowner with HVAC equipment, but babies made him nervous. At home, he fussed over the electric furnace; if he was not changing the furnace filter, he was fixing made-up problems on the boiler or trying to find a way to improve the heating technology to avoid the baby. Chio had also noticed because even for an HVAC repairman, he was obsessing over the heating and cooling system a little too much. The central heater had always been in good condition, so Chio did not understand why Ian was up about it. Whether heater or not, Chio needed a reprieve, and the minute Ian was at the door, she dashed it.

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