Once and Again

Lily Manning, separated from her husband, and Rick Sammler, divorced for 3 years, meet by chance when her daughter, Grace, injures her ankle in a soccer game. They go out on a date, and are instantly attracted to each other.

Rick and Lily ponder taking their relationship to the next level.

Rick and Lily's families gather at the school carnival. Lily and Karen, who don't know of each other at this point, are paired to work together in a booth there.

After meeting Rick, Judy expresses to Lily her misgivings about Lily's blossoming relationship with him.

Rick introduces Lily to his kids under awkward circumstances.

Lily faces the reality of being on her own and Judy begins to pull away from her Lily. This happens after Rick offers to remodel the bookstore and Judy feels like the ""odd man out"" because Lily and Rick's relationship, she feels, leaves her little time to spend with Lily.

Lily and Rick try to blend their families together, but it doesn't go smoothly. Jesse has trouble adjusting to high school.

Judy turns the bookstore into a ""book club for singles."" This attracts an interesting clientele, including Jake (who's tiring of his girlfriend Tiffany) and Lily's boss Christie. Judy isn't sure of her attraction to the handyman who's fixing up the store.

Parental pressure bears down on Eli to get his act together for college. However, Eli wants to form a music group.

It's Thanksgiving and that means both the Sammler's and Manning's get together for dinner, whether they want to be there or not. It turns out that the two mothers get along quite well. It's Rick and his mom that have issues. She questions whether Rick knows that his children aren't doing as well as he would like to think. Barbara sees her son Aaron for the first time since Phil's funeral.

Changes in the design of Miles' building that Rick's firm are designing means a dinner meeting for Rick - and a reluctant Lily -- with Miles and important clients. When Lily puts her two cents worth in at the dinner, it makes for an awkward evening for Rick.

Jesse is taken to a psychiatrist to find out why she isn't eating. Karen's firm is hired to oppose the building of Miles' building -- the one Rick is designing.

As the two families merge into one house, disagreements over Jesse and Zoe's room decorations dominate the breakfast discussion. Lily's employer, Pages Alive, shuts down, so she's out of a job. Eli's busted for marijuana possession following a car accident. The officer finds Coop's marijuana in the car. This renews Karen's demands that Eli get a job and give up music. Lily, however, has a different opinion. Karen also talks with Rick about Eli living with her for a while. Predictably, Rick gets caught in the middle. Rick finally stands up to Karen and says that Eli will be okay. In the end, Eli ignores his mother's wishes and gets a job in a recording studio and continues to live with Rick and Lily.

Grace doesn't know what to make of her new teacher. Judy asks Lily to work at her planned bookstore/cafe. Lily also interviews at a radio station. Karen brings up the idea of hiring Jake to work on the bookstore/cafe. Lily isn't sure about that idea or where she wants to work. She gets hired at the radio station, so she has a decision to make. Jessie becomes increasingly annoyed by Grace and Eli's behavior when they're around each other. Judy and Lily argue about working together. Judy and Jake resolve the dispute they had the day before and Jake agrees to work on the bookstore/cafe. Will tells Judy that he found his daughter in Florida and that he's moving there to get to know her again. Eli becomes the subject of Grace's journal entries. Judy finally realizes that she has to do the bookstore/cafe without Lily.

Sam returns to town, further complicating the lives of Judy, Lily, and Rick. Sam wants to hire Rick to be the architect for a project he has. Judy, however, wants to hire Rick to redo her bookstore. Colin is agitated over Sam's inability to produce any sketches. Jake grows increasingly worried with the impending arrival of his and Tiffany's baby. Fearing he's having an anxiety attack, Judy tells him to go see her doctor. Colin gives Rick an ultimatum: Sam better produce some sketches, or else Rick and Sam will be fired. So Rick lets Sam know how serious the situation is. Jake's test results are clean and Sam comes through. Sam and Judy agree that now isn't the right time for them to be together.

Jessie and Grace both audition for the same role in a school production of ""As You Like It."" Mr. Dimitri throws them a curve when he announces that he is planning a musical version of the play. Judy and Sam Blue spend the night together and Lily suspects there is something going on. Judy would like a real commitment from Sam, but he's not quite ready yet. Grace tells Mr. Dimitri that Jessie can't handle the stress of the play because of her eating disorder and eventually lands the lead role.

A boy in the play school play asks Jesse out. Grace is less than happy with the news, because she thought that the boy was flirting with her during rehearsal. Karen is upset that Rick didn't left her out of the loop on this. Les takes over a talk show after the host leaves following an argument between the two. He asks for Lily's opinion on a call (while on the air), which leads to her taking over the show that night, and a once-a-week gig after that. Rick and Lily argue about her discussing Jesse's ""date"" when it hasn't been decided if he'll let her go. Grace thinks about quitting the play (over her sorta-feelings for Tad and the whole Tad-Jesse thing), but that's not what she tells Mr. Dmitri. He convinces her to stay. Grace is irate that Lily offered to loan Jesse Lily's pearl necklace when she wouldn't let Grace borrow it earlier. Grace is starting to think that Lily likes her stepdaughter Jesse more than her. Karen accuses Lily of using Jesse's personal life for radio ""mat

The women (and Grace and Zoe) want to hold a baby shower for Tiffany. This doesn't excite Jake. He doesn't want Grace - and especially Zoe - to have expectations about him and Tiffany. So Jake discourages the idea of having Zoe at the shower. So she calls Lily to cancel the shower, which upsets Zoe. Jake tells Tiffany that she shouldn't go home to have the baby just because of him and Zoe. Lily convinces Tiffany to have the baby in Chicago and to have the shower also. Jake wants Lily to butt out of ""his business"", but because the kids are involved, he relents. Judy goes to her doctor to see how many ""baby years"" she has left. She even tells Lily that she's considering in-vitro fertilization. Zoe is upset over Jake's seeming indifference about his upcoming baby. Jake goes ballistic in front of all the women and kids when he and Zoe get home and the ladies discover that he didn't get a gift. Lily reassures Jake that he is still a good father despite his outburst. Jake does g