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Samantha hadn’t put any of those tactics into practice—until now—but she’d learned all the signs that indicated a married man. Just in case she was ever interested enough to check out a man.

So far, she hadn’t been. She’d hardly met any men at all since she’d been here. At the dentist’s office it was almost all mothers and children, which made this man even more intriguing.

Oh, jeez, Samantha admitted, he’d be intriguing under any circumstances, and she was staring quite rudely, probably making a fool of herself. Not that she’d ever take this any farther than a mild flirtation—just for practice. She was sadly out of practice, after all. It showed in everything she’d said and done to him. She could relate to seven-year-olds better than grown men. And he had a seven-year-old. An adorable one, which made him strictly off-limits, him and his kid.

“Mr. Morgan—”

“Joe,” he cut in.

“Joe.” She liked the sound of his name on her lips. “About Luke—what can I do for him? And for you?”

Looking wary again, Joe just stared at her, then finally started to talk. “Luke has been behaving strangely lately.”

“You can tell me,” she encouraged because this seemed to be so difficult for him.

“It’s…I don’t understand it. He’s obsessed with teeth. Yesterday, on the playground at school, he tried to pull out a little girl’s tooth. Today in the cafeteria, he had a flashlight and his hand inside a little boy’s mouth…”

“Oh.” Samantha considered for a minute. “Does he by any chance go to St. Mark’s?”

“Yes. Why?”

She’d definitely embarrassed him now, and she felt bad.

“I’ve been getting some calls from St. Mark’s. I think I saw his patient, Jenny, yesterday. I’ve been wondering about my competitor, actually.”

“The little girl’s all right, isn’t she? Please tell me Luke didn’t do any damage.”

Samantha wanted to reassure him, felt an almost overwhelming urge to touch him. With the kids, she was generous with her smiles, her laughter, the touch of her hand on a shoulder or a big hug. But this was a man, she reminded herself again. And she’d already made a fool of herself with her little bag of tricks.

“Jenny’s fine.” She managed to keep her hands to herself and rushed on, “She would have lost the tooth in a few days, anyway.”

“Thank goodness for that,” he said.

“So, what else is Luke doing?”

“He’s so caught up in this whole tooth thing. At first I thought it was money. Luke loves money. But after he lost his first tooth and put it under his pillow, the…uh…”

“The tooth fairy came to visit?” she suggested.

“Yes, and he got his money. Then he decided he’d rather have the tooth back. He came and asked if he could buy it back.”

Samantha laughed. “I hope you agreed.”

“Yes. He put his two dollars under his pillow without complaining at all about the loss of the money, and the next morning, there was his tooth.”

“Good,” Samantha said. He was willing to play along, for the sake of his son. “So what did he do with the tooth?”

“He put it in a jelly jar on the shelf in the top of his closet, along with the other three teeth he’s lost. He’s saving them.”

“For what?”

Joe shrugged. “I don’t know. He hasn’t said. Do you think you could explain to my son that dentists are the only people allowed to pull teeth?”

“Of course.”

“He’s up to something. I don’t know what.”

“Something to do with baby teeth? And magic? And wishes?”

Joe nodded.

Once again she wanted to touch him, to soothe him just a bit, maybe make him smile again. She had a feeling he wasn’t normally such a stern-looking man.

“What does Luke want?”

Joe swore so softly she could barely hear it, then added quietly, “I’m afraid to ask.”

“Something that’s not within your power to give?” she guessed.

Joe nodded again.

Samantha couldn’t help but wonder where Mrs. Morgan was right now, and she sensed that was the answer to Luke’s wishes and to his father’s obvious discomfort. She wouldn’t pry any further, because she suspected this man’s pride had taken a beating somewhere along the way. But taking a closer look at his left hand, she now found that strip of paler skin that told her, until recently, he’d worn what she suspected was a wedding ring.

Poor Luke, she thought. What happened to his mother?

“I’ll give Luke my standard speech on the importance of taking care of teeth, letting them come out when they’re ready—all that good stuff,” she said. And she’d throw in a few more magic tricks to make Luke smile.

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

And then, because there was nothing left to do, she excused herself to go talk to Luke and left Joe in the peace and quiet of her office.

She was back fifteen minutes later, having left Luke in the waiting room admiring one of her displays of fairy figurines and not sure she’d been any help at all. Joe Morgan stood with his back to her, his impossibly broad shoulders seeped in tension. She wished there was something she could do to soothe him, too.

“Hi,” she said, walking in and closing the door behind her.

He turned around and looked at her, waiting, obviously hoping. She hated disappointing him.

“I’m sorry. Luke has a mouthful of beautiful absolutely healthy teeth and a whole lot of secrets. I tried my best, but I couldn’t get him to crack.”

Joe smiled. “Really put on the pressure, did you, Doc?”

“I tried,” she reassured him. “He’s very bright. He asked me all sorts of questions about baby teeth. How many kids have and when they start to lose them, how long it takes before they’re all gone. He says he has a friend who’s good with numbers who’s going to help him figure everything out. He mentioned something about a formula. I hope we’re talking mathematical and not chemical.”

Joe laughed. “I’ll lock up his chemistry set.”

“That would probably be a good idea.”

“Luke is a schemer. Always has been. He gets an idea in his head, and he doesn’t let go of it. Not for anything.”

“Which is not necessarily a bad trait.”

“In an adult. It’s hell in a kid, especially when you’re the one trying to raise him.”

Samantha shrugged, telling herself not to get drawn in too deeply. She was just here to take care of kids’ teeth. She always got in too deep, always cared too much. Surely she’d learned her lesson by now.

“I’m sure you’ll figure out what he’s up to. Or he’ll tell you,” she said. “I showed Luke all my instruments and explained to him all the things I use to pull out a tooth safely, and I thought that would do it. But I didn’t like the gleam in his eye. I was afraid he’d be off stealing a pair of pliers or an adjustable wrench from your toolbox and using what I told him to be even more efficient at dentistry than he already is. I hope that wasn’t a mistake.”

“I’ll lock up my tools, too,” Joe said. “Just in case.”

“Good. My next idea was to tell him he could be a dentist, but he had to suffer through a ton of schooling and pass all sorts of tests first to be licensed. That may have made some headway with him—the idea that he could be in trouble for practicing dentistry without a license.”

Joe laughed out loud then. She saw little crinkles at the corners of his dark eyes and his mouth. His shoulders shook and he relaxed, at least for a second. How about that? she mused. She’d made him laugh, really laugh. She felt as good as she did when one of her little tricks won her a genuine smile from a kid.

“You’re very good, Doc. I’m impressed.”

She blushed at the praise, thinking she’d thoroughly enjoyed her time with the Morgan men.

“He seemed to like me. Quite a bit,” she admitted. “So my third and final strategy was to tell Luke that if he insisted on taking care of all his classmates’ teeth, pretty soon I wouldn’t have anything to do, that he’d ruin my job.”

“That’s perfect,” Joe said. “I appreciate it. More than I can say.”

“He’s a delightful little boy.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Take good care of him. And call me if there’s anything else I can do,” she offered, wondering if he’d take her up on that, if she’d ever see either one of them again.

Joe Morgan took her hand in both of his. Her entire arm started to tingle in an unsettling way. They stood there, staring at each other. She felt a strange sense of connection with him, something she didn’t want to lose. Which was crazy. She didn’t even know him. She didn’t know anything about him, except that he was too handsome for her own good, she felt a little charge of electricity when he touched her, and he had a great little boy.

Samantha pulled away, because that was how it had to be. She had to look out for herself this time. She had to be smart, safe.

“Thanks, Doc,” he said softly.

“You’re welcome,” she said, fighting this odd urge to beg him to stay.

He turned and walked to the door, was almost gone when she thought of something.

“Joe?”

He turned to face her again. “Yes?”

“I may have convinced Luke to stop practicing dentistry, but he’s absolutely convinced I have magical powers. I’m afraid my little tricks with the coins and things just made it worse. He thinks I’m the tooth fairy.”

Joe considered, then replied, “I’ll take care of it.”

Samantha nodded, wondering what he’d say. That there was no such thing as magic? No wishes coming true? No miracles left in this world?

She hoped not, even though she supposed it was true. But Samantha had seen children who’d stopped believing in magic, who’d been robbed of their illusions, and she didn’t want Luke to be one of them.

Chapter Two

It was much later that evening when Samantha shed her white coat, which she wore to guard her clothes but also for the deep pockets where she stored the tricks of her trade. She took out the glow-in-the-dark toothbrushes, the magic disappearing coins, the fat tongue depressor that turned into a bouquet of flowers and the magic set of teeth that chattered around on tabletops when she wound them up.

Her last patient was long gone, as well as the office staff. There was nothing left to do but go back to the house she’d rented temporarily while she tried out this town, this practice. While she decided whether it was any easier to be here, far away from everyone she’d left behind, everyone she’d lost.

She felt absolutely alone that night, absolutely lost.

She had put the length of the country between her and everyone she knew, everything that was familiar, thinking to start over in a brand-new place. Brand-new house, if she ever got around to finding one. Brand-new practice, if she made up her mind and exercised her option to buy this one. Brand-new what else? she wondered.

Man, came the answer, the image of a certain one coming into her head.

Brand-new kid? She knew better. She did.

So she swiveled around in her chair to face the window of the office that she’d occupied for all of six weeks now and that was starting to feel familiar, thanks to all of the things she’d brought. Her gaze eventually landed on the small glass cabinet in the corner. It had small framed drawings, porcelain figurines, carvings, even a sculpture her father had made, all of his favorite image, the tooth fairy. They always made her smile, always made her patients smile.

It was mostly her father’s collection, one of his most prized possessions. He’d willed them to her, and now she displayed some of them in her office. It added an air of magic to the place, which her father had taught her to use to help get past the fear some children had of dentists.

Little children should never be afraid, her father always said.

She closed her eyes and thought, But I’m afraid, Daddy. I’m so afraid.

Afraid that she would always feel this bad, this sad and alone, this lost, and here were no little magic tricks to make it better. No fairy dust raining down on her.

Which made her think of Luke and Joe. They seemed afraid, too. Sad and lost and hurting. Maybe that was why she found herself so drawn to them, why she felt so bereft without them.

She’d been happy today, just for a little bit. Happy with Luke and Joe. She’d felt what seemed to be a little spark of pure magic, and it had frightened her.

So she had to remember all that she’d lost and the reason she had to stay away from them. It shouldn’t be that hard to remember, especially not here. There was a spot at the end of the credenza, just to the right by the droopy-looking potted fern she’d lugged all the way from Seattle, a spot where she’d always kept a favorite photograph of the girls.

Maybe it had been a mistake to leave the photos behind. She’d debated that point with herself for what seemed like hours, and in the end, she’d left the photos, along with a big chunk of her heart.

Samantha knew she had to safeguard that battered heart of hers now. She had to be careful and cautious and use her head.

No men, she told herself even more sternly. Especially men with kids. If she’d learned anything else in the past four years, surely she’d learned that. No men and, please, God, no more falling in love with kids who didn’t belong to her.

Dr. Carter let Luke keep the quarter and the spider ring. Best of all, she gave him a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush. When Joe brought him home, Luke hid in the closet with the toothbrush all evening watching it glow. He swore the toothbrush was magic, that Dr. Carter was magic and that she was really the tooth fairy in disguise.

Dani wailed off and on all night after they picked her up from late-stay at school. Because she didn’t get to see the tooth fairy, because she still hadn’t lost a tooth and because she hadn’t gotten a quarter, a spider ring or a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush.

Once he’d finally gotten them into bed, Joe put a hand to the back of his neck and tried to work out the tension in the muscles there. Somewhere he had to find another glow-in-the-dark toothbrush—a pink one, because that was Dani’s favorite color. And he had to find a way to talk his daughter out of a trip to the magic dentist, because he wasn’t sure if he could stand there and let Samantha Carter pull another silk scarf from his shirt pocket.

He wondered what kind of magic she used to make that little jolt of awareness shoot through him when her fingertips flitted across his chest for all of half a second. Something from her bag of tricks? He wanted to ask but didn’t think it would be wise for him to see her again.

Because he didn’t believe in magic, yet he was crazy enough to think he’d seen a shooting star on the ceiling in her office today. Joe had almost asked her about the special paint. But she’d think he was nuts, that it was no wonder his son pulled little girls’ teeth on the playground and kept them in a jelly jar in the top of his closet.

Joe shook his head and indulged in the chance to swear out loud, because the kids were asleep.

He was going to stay far, far away from Samantha Carter.

Wandering through the house, he picked up things here and there. Dani’s shoes and dirty socks that made a trail from the hallway to the living room. As usual she’d kicked them off while she made her way from one room to the next. No amount of talking made the least bit of difference about that particular bad habit of hers.

Luke’s book bag from school was on the kitchen table, and Joe dug the lunch box out of the book bag so he could discard whatever Luke hadn’t finished of his lunch. Too many times Joe had forgotten, and the mess that confronted him inside the lunch box on a Monday morning was something he could do without.

Inside the book bag, he also found Luke’s jacket and two sheets of math problems due tomorrow, all of them wadded into a neat little ball. Maybe they could smooth out the math sheets enough that Luke could turn them in.

As Joe picked up the book bag to put it away, he realized it weighed more than it should have. There was something else inside it.

A rock? That was Joe’s first thought. Luke loved rocks. For some reason, he didn’t think they had enough of them here, so he collected them at school and brought them home with him.

He unzipped pockets one by one until he hit on the one that held something long and thin and heavy. Joe’s fingers closed around it and drew it out of the book bag.

“Dammit, Luke,” he said.

In his hand was the tooth-fairy figurine he’d found Luke admiring in the lobby of Samantha Carter’s office when Joe had gone to get him. She had long blond hair, a blue dress with stars and a magic wand with fairy dust streaming after it. Luke must have swiped the figurine while Joe was settling the bill.

Which meant Joe would have to see Samantha again.

He tested out his feelings on the subject. He was not happy. He refused to be. So what if the woman was gorgeous and somehow looked as vulnerable as a fairy who’d gotten her wings singed? So what if touching her, in the simplest of ways, had the power to make him tremble like an overeager teenage boy.

He wasn’t going to do anything about it. He couldn’t. He had his kids to think about. Kids who’d cried themselves to sleep too many nights to count over a woman who was never coming back to them, one he suspected didn’t give them a second thought these days.

No woman was ever going to hurt them again. Joe would see to it.

That meant Samantha Carter was off-limits. He and Luke would take the fairy back and be done with the woman.

Samantha didn’t even get a chance to catch her breath until well past noon. A member of the office staff was kind enough to make a run to the nearby sandwich shop and take orders, so Samantha had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat, a diet soda and all of five minutes to down both before her next patient would be ready for her.

Leaning back into the big leather chair, she let the sandwich sit there on her desk, let the soda get warm and go flat. Feeling altogether out of sorts today, she swiveled around in her chair and gave in to the need to let herself think about Joe Morgan and his adorable son.

They were all she’d heard about today. It seemed they’d charmed the entire office staff, and Samantha had given herself away half-a-dozen times when she’d been teased about Mr. Morgan, Sr. He was so polite. He had a delicious Texas drawl. He was not married anymore. He didn’t seem at all caught up in his own charms, an affliction that tended to absolutely ruin most truly good-looking men. She’d gotten those choice bits of gossip within the first five minutes of arriving in the office. By noon someone had started a pool that had grown to twenty-five dollars already. The bet—how long it would be before he called back.

“Am I that transparent?” Samantha complained, when she was closeted in her office at twelve-thirty with her forty-something, normally no-nonsense office manager, Dixie, who’d just given her the latest update on the pool.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you really smile at anyone over twelve in six weeks. We’ve been worried about you, sweetie. Besides, he really is cute.”

“Lots of men are cute,” she argued.

“Not that cute. Besides, I think he’s nice, too. I liked the way he talked to his little boy. You can tell everything important about a man by the way he talks to his kids,” Dixie claimed.

“If you catch him when no one’s listening,” Sam said. She’d found many parents who were totally different with their kids when they thought no one was listening. And she certainly hadn’t been listening when Richard talked to the girls. She’d missed a great deal there.

“I liked him, and I’m no pushover.” Dixie pointed to the turkey on whole wheat and the soda. “And you owe me five and a quarter.”

“I’ll buy tomorrow?” Sam suggested.

“Fine by me. Unless I win the pot. Then we’ll hit that little French place around the corner for some serious take-out.”

“Dixie! You got in on this?”

“Of course. I don’t suppose you’d like to call him? The bet’s good either way. It doesn’t matter who makes the call, just as long as the two of you talk.”

“No, I’m not going to call him.”

“We have his number,” she offered. “We even have his address.”

“No.”

Dixie laughed and headed for the door. “I have to get back to work. My boss is a slave driver.”

Samantha sighed and told herself to eat. She didn’t have much time. But now she couldn’t help herself. She was thinking about the Morgan men, despite all her intentions not to.

Taken individually, either Joe or his son would have caught her interest. Together they were simply devastating. Luke was just too cute, too full of energy and exuberance and shyly given smiles. She’d felt like a great treasure had been bestowed upon her when Luke smiled. Samantha had done her best to put the fear of God into him when it came to working on other children’s teeth, but it had been hard to do with Luke practically dancing with excitement and begging her to admit to being the tooth fairy in disguise.

Laughter bubbled up inside her. The tooth fairy?

She wished she was, so she could conjure up whatever Luke wanted so badly. As hard as she’d tried, she hadn’t convinced Luke to tell her what that was. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell him that sometimes wishing simply wasn’t enough.

Though she knew little about Luke’s situation, she understood quite clearly that Luke needed to believe the magic was real, and she suspected that need came from his wish to have his absent mother back.

Samantha didn’t see a lot of dads bring children to her office. She suspected Joe was all Luke had, and that had her wondering if she’d see him again.

It had her thinking of making a fool of herself by pulling a scarf out of his shirt pocket in an effort to make him smile. Joe Morgan looked as if he needed a reason to smile as badly as his son did, and Samantha’s first impulse had been to give him one, because she’d wanted to see him smile, too.

Her face burned at the memory of being so foolish as to treat a grown man like a little boy.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if Joe hadn’t been…well…

Stop it, Samantha, she chastised herself.

So he was good-looking. That didn’t mean anything, unless she wanted a man she could simply enjoy looking at from time to time. She couldn’t very well sit him in a corner, like a beautiful piece of furniture, or hang him on a wall like a painting and admire him.

So he was charming, in that down-home, straight-off-the-ranch sort of way. Since when did she melt over a man with a Texas accent?

She’d never had a cowboy fantasy in her life, but when she’d closed her eyes the night before, the first thing she saw was a grinning Joe Morgan in a cowboy hat, a dusty pair of jeans and well-worn boots.

Yum, she thought, unable to help herself for a second.

She wasn’t even looking for a man. The last thing she wanted or needed was a man. And the absolute last thing she’d allow herself to want or need was a man with kids.

“Samantha?” The voice came from the intercom system on the phone, startling Samantha as it always did when she suddenly found someone speaking to her when she was absolutely alone in the room.

“Yes, Jess,” she said.

“Sorry to bother you, but there’s a man on the line who said he needs to see you tonight after your last appointment. No emergency. Nothing to do with teeth. And I thought I’d better check with you first before giving him a time. Your last appointment should be over by six.”

“Okay.” Puzzled, Samantha asked, “Who’s the man?”

“Joe Morgan,” Jess said innocently. “The would-be dentist’s dad.”

Samantha couldn’t stop a long slow sigh from escaping her mouth.

Obviously Jess heard it, too, because she laughed. “I thought that was him. Which means I win! If he called anytime before two-thirty today, I win!”

“Jess—” she protested.

“I’ll put him right through.”

The phone buzzed at her, which meant the intercom had been turned off. A light under the button labeled Line 3 started blinking, which meant Joe was there, right at her fingertips.

Samantha closed her eyes and told herself to make up some socially acceptable little lie. She had plans, errands, some reason to get home tonight. But there was nothing. She couldn’t lie to herself. She was intrigued. The cute cowboy wanted to see her again. He’d seemed so reluctant to be here yesterday, although it may have been nothing but embarrassment over what his son had done.

If only he knew, Samantha thought. Kids did the silliest things. Luke certainly wasn’t the first or the last to give his father fits.

Samantha took a breath and reached for the receiver. Play it cool, she told herself. He’s just a man. Okay, a boyishly handsome man, but one with an adorable kid—definitely off-limits.

She punched the button and said, “Hello? This is Dr. Carter.”

“Hi. This is Joe Morgan,” he said. “From yesterday? My son—”

“I remember you,” she jumped in. As if any woman forgot him. He hesitated then, and she wondered just how eager she’d sounded when she told him she remembered him. Trying to be the professional woman she was supposed to be, Samantha said, “Luke didn’t pull another tooth, did he?”

“No. At least, not that anyone’s told me about. But the day’s still young.” Joe might have been smiling then. She couldn’t be sure. “I was wondering if Luke and I could come by your office this evening. He has something of yours that he needs to return.”

“Oh?”

“I’m afraid he swiped one of your ceramic tooth fairies, Doc.”

“He did?” Samantha was surprised and more than a little disappointed now that she knew why he’d called. Despite what she’d told herself about becoming involved with a man like Joe Morgan, a part of her still wanted him to want her enough to call her today. Which was silly, she knew, but that was how she felt.

“I can’t believe Luke did that,” Joe rushed on. “As far as I know, he’s never done anything like that before. I told him he has to return it to you himself so he can explain what he did and tell you how sorry he is. If you could make time for us, of course.”

“Of course,” she said. “Six o’clock?”

“That’s fine. Thanks.”

“It’s no problem at all. Luke is a delightful child.” She couldn’t help but add, “I hope you won’t be too…”

“Harsh?”

“Yes.” Samantha closed her eyes and winced. It was absolutely none of her business. But Luke was special. She remembered the sad puppy-dog eyes when he’d asked her quite seriously how many teeth she thought it took to get a grand wish granted by the tooth fairy. Not an ordinary wish and certainly not money, he’d explained. A real wish. Real magic.

Oh, Luke. She’d lost a bit of her heart to him already.

“I’m sorry,” Samantha rushed on. “I know it’s none of my business.”

“It’s all right. If it will make you feel better, I’ll tell you that I tried to yell at Luke this morning, but I really didn’t have the heart to do it,” Joe admitted. “Still, he has to know he can’t get away with this. And that it’s a serious thing to take something that doesn’t belong to him.”

“Absolutely,” Samantha agreed, thinking she should help him out here. “I’ll try to be stern when he apologizes.”

And then she heard this wonderful rich laughter coming through the phone. Joe Morgan was laughing at her, and she couldn’t have been more surprised, nor could she imagine such a joyous sound coming out of Joe’s mouth. He was altogether too serious.

“You? Stern?” He laughed again, the sound rolling over her and sending little shivers of delight along her skin. “You’d be even more hopeless at it than I was.”

“W-well,” she stammered, all flustered, the room suddenly much too warm, “I could try.”

“Okay, Doc,” he said. “Give it your best shot.”

“I will,” she declared, wondering how long it had been since he’d laughed like that.

It had been wonderful to make him laugh. And she wished he’d been here so she could have seen what it did to his face. Half the office staff would have been swooning.

“I’ll see you at six,” he said, his voice just as deep and sexy as before, a hint of the laughter still there.

“I’ll be waiting,” she said, then didn’t even realize until she’d hung up the phone just how that sounded.

Samantha folded her arms on her desk, then let her head fall into them. She was just so stupid where men were concerned, and she couldn’t seem to think before she spoke. She’d have Joe believe that the highlight of her day was going to be his son returning her stolen fairy—which was sad, but true. It would be the best part of her day.

Still, she didn’t have to tell Joe that.

Her day flew by from there. With every passing minute, Samantha got more and more nervous. And she knew she was making a fool of herself when she dashed into the washroom at five-thirty and combed her hair and put on some lip gloss. Hers was an all-female office, and every one of her staff members knew exactly who was coming to see her this evening and what she was doing in front of the washroom mirror.

She finished with her last patient at five forty-five, then went into her office and hid. There was paperwork to deal with, but she knew she’d never be able to concentrate on it.

There was nothing to describe how she felt except excited. She was going to see Luke, the little rascal, and Joe. Would Joe smile at her today? Would he open up just a little about what he and Luke were going through? Maybe she could help.

Samantha had all sorts of foolish scenarios running through her head when she heard the intercom buzz.

“Samantha?” said Tess. “You there?”

“Yes.” Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was twelve minutes to six. They were early, and she wasn’t ready for them. She was too nervous and too hopeful and too foolish for words.

“There’s a call for you. Line two. Personal business, I think.”