The Trick To Getting A Mom

“Well, I’ll be—” Sean shook his head in admiration as Kit handed back his wallet.

“You need to keep a closer watch on your valuables, sailor,” she murmured, a wicked gleam in her eye.

His pulse picked up.

Once Alex’s cousins recovered, they erupted in a sea of demands.

“Teach me!”

“Teach me!”

“Teach me!”

“Is this a hospital, or did I make a wrong turn?”

Sean turned as his older sister, Mariah, marched off the elevator. She drilled such a look at Kit. Rude. His sister, a stunner and a spitfire who was completely overprotective of her younger brother Sean.

“Aunt Mariah!” Nina exclaimed. “Mom’s having our baby.”

“That’s why I’m here, love.” She bent down to accept a group hug from the four cousins. “And guess what? I checked. There’s a new kid on the block. Eric Aaron McCabe.”

“Uncle Sean!” Noah whooped. “I got a brother!”

Alex stood on a chair and tossed impromptu confetti—shredded cafeteria napkins—into the air.

“Alexandra,” Sean warned. “Get down and start cleaning up.”

“All of you, chop, chop!” Mariah bustled about the table. “Help me clean up. As soon as Aunt Emily’s back in her room, we can go up to see the baby.” She turned to Sean, her back to Kit, her posture antagonistic. “Family only.”

Sean thought it better to ignore her challenge. “I talked to Pop and Jonas. They’ll be along as soon as they close up work on the pound.”

“I think it would be better if we don’t all descend at once on Emily,” Mariah said. “After the kids have gone up, we can flip to see who takes the rug rats home for baths and bed.” She cut a hard glance at Kit. “You’ve been here the longest, maybe you should take them home.”

“I want to see our new baby,” Olivia wailed.

“Brother,” Noah insisted.

“I wanna stay right here.” Alex thrust her skinny arm through Kit’s shapely one.

Cocking one eyebrow, Mariah glared at Sean.

Sean refused to be intimidated. “Mariah, you remember Kit Darling. An old friend.” Rebellion simmered in the half-truth. “Kit, my big sister, Mariah.”

Mariah clamped her mouth shut, obviously reacting to rumors. She could be such a brat. Her brass made Sean want to shield Kit.

Kit shrugged. “I have to eat.” Gently removing her arm from Alex’s grasp, she handed back Olivia’s bracelet, Nina’s hair bow and Alex’s ring. She flipped the coin to Noah.

“It’s been real,” she said, her voice suddenly tough. She let her hand rest for a moment on Alex’s head. “You’ve been great.”

Then, without so much as a glance in Sean’s direction, she moved to the cafeteria’s sandwich array.

And Sean, having wanted her to leave earlier, now desperately wanted her to stay.

Standing with her back to the lot of them, Kit paid for a ham on rye. Who the hell did Mariah think she was? Dishing out the cold treatment. Making Kit feel fifteen again. And lacking.

The only reason she hadn’t decked the insufferable snot was because the insufferable snot was Alex’s aunt. Alex deserved better.

She moved to the drink machines to purchase bottled water. But when she stuffed a dollar in the slot, the machine immediately spit the rumpled bill back at her. She banged the lit front with the flat of her hand.

“Lemme try.” Alex stood next to Kit, empathy written on her face.

Kit handed her the dollar.

Carefully, as if the task were brain-surgery important, Alex straightened the kinks from the corners, then smoothed the entire bill by running it back and forth over the edge of the vending machine.

The gesture touched Kit. “Why are you being so nice to me?” she murmured.

Alex cocked her head, her gaze unwavering. “Because I like you.” Simple as that. Yet not so simple when her family obviously wanted Kit out of their lives.

Kit glanced over her shoulder to where Sean and his sister were engaged in heated stage whispers. Nina, Noah and Olivia huddled near their aunt.

Kit looked back at Alex, a little person with an enormous heart. “I like you, too,” she replied and felt pounds lighter for having admitted it.

Alex stuck the smoothed dollar in the slot, and the docile machine gave up a bottle of water. Scooping it out of the bin, she handed it to Kit.

“Thanks. Can I buy you one?”

“Alexandra,” Mariah called over. “Come finish cleaning up.”

The McCabes had always been clannish and tough as nails. They’d worn their hardscrabble respectability like a badge. The Darlings couldn’t buy respectability with a bushel of money and a gold-plated plaque from the governor.

Kit turned on her heel for the elevator. To hell with them. All of them.

“Kit!” Alex called as the elevator doors slid open.

“Let her go, Alex,” Mariah urged.

“Kit!” Sean called as she stepped into the car. “Wait!”

She punched the button for the lobby and felt an enormous sense of escape as the doors shut and the car began to descend, leaving Sean behind with his sanctimonious sister. Kit kicked the metal wall. Hard. Pain shot through her big toe.

In the lobby, she hobbled toward the entrance and the parking lot.

“Kit!” Sean had emerged from the second elevator.

She hobbled faster through the lobby’s automatic doors and into the parking lot toward her motorcycle. Freedom on a kickstand.

But Sean’s stride was too great. Catching up with her, he grasped her good arm and spun her around.