Alice watched Tina walk through the front door of The Planet and could only lean back and shake her head wistfully.

“What?” Shane asked, a quizzical look on her face.

“I want what she’s got,” Alice said.

Shane grinned. “You’re going to have to call Marcus Allenwood for that.”

“Seriously, though. Look at her. Have you ever seen her look so”

“Happy? Beautiful? Content?” Shane supplied, standing up to pull out a chair for Tina.

“Hey,” Tina said, hugging Shane and tousling Alice’s hair as she sat down.

“Something from the bar?” Shane queried, pointing to the counter.

“I wish,” Tina said.

“Tell them to put some tequila in her smoothie,” Alice said.

“Be right back,” Shane said.

“You know I love you T. But you’re killing me,” Alice said.

“Huh?”

“You’re so”

“Big? Tired? Emotional?” Tina offered, raising her eyebrows.

“In love,” Alice said simply.

Tina smiled and lowered her eyes, doing her best to stave off the heat rising in her cheeks.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Alice said, throwing up her hands.

“Is this person bothering you, Miss?” Shane asked, sitting down next to Tina.

“I made her blush because she’s in love with her wife,” Alice said.

“You want her to be in love with someone else?” Shane handed Tina her smoothie.

“No. I just”

“You’re just jealous,” Shane said, smiling at the twin expressions of confusion that Alice and Tina wore. “You see, Al is having a little trouble getting Dana to”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don’t need to get into all of the specifics,” Alice interrupted.

“Still?” Tina asked, eyes wide.

“What? We’re on some kind of a schedule here?”

“Wellno. But I thoughtI mean. It’s been a while,” Tina said quietly, sipping her smoothie.

“Tell me about it,” Alice replied, slouching deep in her chair.

“Did you send the flowers?” Shane asked.

“No.”

“What flowers?” Tina frowned.

“I told her to start acting like Dana’s girl friend not just her friend. Flowers, candy. The package.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Shane nodded smugly.

“It’s tooweird,” Alice said, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest.

“No, what’s weird is that you asked her to give this a try with you and now you’re being a totaltool.”  Shane leaned back and shook her head.

“Whatever,” Alice said defensively.

“Maybe you should go away together. Have a change of scenery. You could do a long weekend somewhere,” Tina suggested.

“A romantic getaway,” Shane added.

“Not too far away. Some place you can drive to,” Tina mused.

“San Francisco’s always good,” interjected Shane.

“Candlelight dinners. Long walks. Cable cars.”

“A hotel room. With a bed,” Shane smirked. “One big bed.”

Alice watched the exchange between her two friends with increasing interest.

“That’s not bad. That’s actuallypretty good.”

“Our job here is done,” Tina winked at Shane.

“Okay. I’m going to start working on this. Thanks,” Alice said, gathering her bag and purse. “This could be perfect.”

“Call me,” Tina said to Alice’s back as her friend left the table and bustled out of the restaurant.

“You doing okay?” Shane turned her attention to Tina. “You feeling all right?”

Tina beamed and nodded. “I’m in the home stretch now. The birthing tank delivered this week. Bette insisted on filling it so she could time how long it would take.”

“And?”

“She did it in about 40 minutes, but she’s determined to shave a few minutes off,” Tina chuckled. “Yesterday she called about ordering a bigger hot water heater.”

“Rachel really likes you guys,” Shane said, busying herself with her espresso cup.

“We really like Rachel, too. We should all have dinner some time,” Tina said innocently.

“She carries three pagers and one of them is always going off. She eats dinner in her car.”

“Sounds like you need a weekend away, too.”

“I prefer the home court advantage,” Shane grinned.

“Go team,” Tina said, raising her cup in a toast.