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For my children, who have added a dimension of fun to my life that I never expected. Having them has taught me that it’s okay to completely humiliate yourself in a driveway basketball game and that the point of Scrabble isn’t to win or show off my vocabulary skills, but to share laughs and groans with the family.

I love you both, more and more every day. Every laugh, every smile and especially every hug is a treasure I hold dear to my heart.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ONE

CARTER MATTHEWS screamed into the parking lot, road gravel spitting a wake behind him as he slid his red Lexus into a front space. The ads had said the car could go zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. They had lied.

Carter’s new toy could go zero to a hundred, making the Lexus worth every penny.

He slid out of the car, feeling a twinge of guilt that he’d blown off most of the workday to take the car out for a spin. Pearl, his assistant, had given him her famous evil eye as he’d darted out the door this morning, barely five minutes after striding through it. What Pearl didn’t understand was that TweedleDee Toys was undoubtedly better off when Carter wasn’t running the ship.

“Mr. Matthews! I’m glad I found you!”

He spun around. Mike, TweedleDee’s design intern, scrambled across the parking lot, trying to hold a bulky paper bag against his chest with one hand while keeping his glasses on his nose with the other. “I…well, we, had this brainstorm today and the guys wanted me to rush over to you. ” He thrust the bag at Carter, then caught his breath. “Meet Cemetery Kitty. We think it’s going to revolutionize the stuffed animal industry.

“Cemetery Kitty? As in another stuffed animal?” Carter tried to work some enthusiasm into his voice. This week, he’d given his toy designers a single task—to come up with something to wow the buyers at this fall’s Toy Convention. He’d expected a water blasting outdoor gun, a snazzy remote control car, anything but one more faux fur pet.

“Are you going to look at it now?” Mike’s entire body went frenetic with anticipation. He clasped and unclasped his hands, nodding at the bag. “You, ah, haven’t been in the office all that much, so I thought I’d track you down. If you like it, we can rush right into production. ”

The stuffed toy would undoubtedly be one more in a string of failures, but he didn’t voice his reservations, not while he was still riding the high of driving his new car. He had no desire to ruin that by inserting the failing toy business into the mix.

“It’s been a long day. I’ll look at it later. But thanks. ” He gave Mike a wave, then headed into his building.

The intern who had enthusiastically cleaned out the office supplies cupboard and color-coded the Post-it notes, remained undaunted and caught up with Carter. “Mr. Matthews?”