To Anna and Anton Adler, Russian immigrants and my loving grandparents.

      Thank you for the wonderful heritage you gave me.

       One

      “You must be Zachary Thomas,” Janine said breathlessly as she whirled into the office. “Sorry I’m late, but I got hung up in traffic on Fourth Avenue. I didn’t realize they’d torn up the whole street.” Still a little winded, she unfastened her coat, tossed it over the back of the visitor’s chair and threw herself down, facing the large executive desk.

      The man on the other side blinked twice as though he didn’t know quite what to think.

      “I’m Janine Hartman.” She drew in a deep breath. “Gramps said if he wasn’t back from his appointment, I should introduce myself.”

      “Yes,” Zachary said after a moment of strained silence. “But he didn’t tell me you’d be wearing—”

      “Oh, the bandanna dress,” Janine said, smoothing one hand over her lap. The dress had been constructed of red and blue bandannas; it featured a knee-length zigzag hemline and closely hugged her hips. “It was a gift. And since I’m meeting the girl who made it later, I thought I should wear it.”

      “And the necklace?”

      Janine toyed with the colored Christmas-tree lights strung between large beads on a bootlace that dangled from her neck. “It’s a bit outrageous, isn’t it? That was a gift, too. I think it’s kind of cute, don’t you? Pamela is so clever.”

      “Pamela?”

      “A teenager from the Friendship Club.”

      “I…see,” Zach said.

      “I do volunteer work there and the two of us hit it off as soon as we met. Pam’s mother doesn’t live in the area and she’s at that awkward age and needs a friend. For some reason she took a liking to me, which was fine because I think she’s wonderful.”

      “I see,” he said again.

      Janine doubted he did.

      “The necklace is different I’ll grant you,” Zach was saying—which wasn’t admitting to much. His dark eyes narrowed as he studied it.

      Now that she’d met Zachary Thomas, Janine