Page 40 of This Time Around (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #3)

By the time she had the drinks, she’d managed to talk herself down. She had another quick flash of panic when she didn’t see Paige right away, but her heart rate slowed as she spotted the girl at a corner table.

Paige waved her over, then accepted the cardboard cup Allie handed her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I wasn’t sure if you take cream or sugar or anything.” She pushed a few packets across the table, just in case.

“I’m not sure, either,” Paige said. “I’ve never had tea.”

Allie picked up her own cup and pried off the lid so she could blow on it. “My mom used to take me for tea all the time when I was your age. Well, maybe a little older. I always liked cream and sugar.”

Paige nodded as she used a little wooden stir stick to swirl about eighty pounds of sugar into her drink. “My mom’s dead.”

Allie winced. “I know. I’m sorry. Really sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Paige gave her a small smile that nearly broke her heart. “May I try the cream, too?”

Allie handed her some and tried to think of a safer topic of conversation. Something that wouldn’t remind the kid she was motherless or in the care of a woman with dubious childcare credentials. Luckily, Paige picked up the slack.

“So you must like cats a lot, huh?”

Allie took a small sip of tea. “Actually, I’d never even had a cat until a couple weeks ago.”

“How come?”

“My parents wouldn’t let me when I was growing up. They said they were dirty and messy and ill-tempered. My grandma always loved them, though.”

“So she let you play with hers?”

“Yes.” Allie felt a twinge of wistfulness as she remembered running around the house dragging the silk tie from her grandmother’s robe with Stumpy scampering after it. “My grandma was the best. Funny and smart and sophisticated and little nuts, but in a good way.”

“My grandma’s pretty great, too.”

Allie fished the teabag out of her cup and set it on her napkin. “Your dad’s mom?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you see your other grandma much? Your mom’s mom?”

“No. Grandma Sarah’s in Florida.”

“And your Aunt Missy is in Chicago?”

“Yeah.”

The girl sounded distracted, and Allie looked up to see Paige staring at the mannequins across the mall aisle at Victoria’s Secret.

Their shiny bosoms jutted out toward the window like pink satin torpedoes, and Paige gaped at them with an expression somewhere between mystified and fearful. Allie touched the girl’s arm.

“We’re not going there,” she reassured her. “The place we’re going is a little more discreet.”

“Discreet,” Paige repeated, her gaze fixed on a bra covered in gold sequins.

“I’m of the opinion that a woman’s bra shouldn’t set off metal detectors.”

“Good idea.” She looked at Allie and smiled. “So you know my Grandma Louise?”

“I do. I used to go over to your dad’s house for dinner sometimes many, many years ago.”

“Back when you and my dad were boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“That’s right.”

Paige blew into her own mug of tea, though Allie could see flecks of mostly melted ice cubes drifting on top. “Did my grandma make corned beef for you?”

“She did.” Nostalgia twisted her lungs into knots, and she breathed deeply to unkink them. “With carrots and cabbage and baby potatoes. It was amazing.”

“She still makes that. It’s my favorite.” Paige took big slurp of tea. “Did your mom make corned beef, too? When my dad came over for dinner, I mean.”

“My mom’s not much of a cook.” She crossed her fingers Paige wouldn’t keep going with this line of questioning.

In all honesty, Priscilla Ross had never once invited Jack to dinner.

“My grandma used to make really nice dinners, though,” she added.

“At the bed and breakfast where all the cats are now. She’d make stuffed quail and coq au vin and all kinds of other pretentious-sounding foods. ”

“What’s pretentious?”

Allie laughed. “My family. It’s kind of a fancy way of saying stuck up .”

“Pretentious,” Paige repeated. “A pretentious way of saying stuck up.”

“Exactly.”

Paige seemed to consider that. “You don’t seem pretentious.”

“Thanks. I’ve had a long time to work on it.”

The girl went quiet again, and they both sipped at their tea in silence for a bit. Allie glanced at her watch. They still had fifteen minutes to kill.

“Did you know my mom?” Paige asked.

Allie choked on her tea. She caught herself quickly, hoping Paige wouldn’t notice. “No,” Allie said, coughing a little. “I never knew your mother.”

She sat there stupidly, trying to think of something to say. What did someone even say to a child who’d lost her mother? Surely a smarter, more experienced woman could come up with something. Allie was drawing a blank.

But she gave it her best shot. “Do you remember your mom at all?” she asked softly.

“I think so. Maybe a little. She was pretty, like you, but her hair was kinda curly and shorter. Also, she could do this funny thing with her elbows where they bent the wrong way.”

“You mean she was double-jointed?”

“Yeah,” Paige said. “Me, too. Look.”

The girl proceeded to demonstrate, flipping her arm back so it seemed to hinge the wrong way. Allie grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Nah, it doesn’t hurt.” Paige flipped her arm back the right way and grinned. “My dad says my mom could do it with her shoulders, too. I don’t remember that. I don’t really even remember her voice.”

Allie swallowed hard, utterly charmed and heartbroken for the girl all at once. “I’m sure she loved you very much.”

Paige nodded. Her expression was a little wistful, but not terribly sad. “Me, too.”

“I wish I’d met her.” Allie realized with a start that it was true. She would have liked to know the sort of woman Jack would marry, the kind he’d choose to raise a child with, even if that plan hadn’t turned out the way they expected.

She wanted to offer more, but she wasn’t sure what else to say. Maybe it was best to have conversations like this in small pieces, eking out little bits of history at a time.

A pretty redhead with a stroller and a pre-teen girl at her side ambled through the coffee shop door. Paige waved to the girl and the girl waved back, then mumbled something to her mom.

“Someone from school?” Allie asked.

“Katie’s from soccer,” Paige said. “I play goalie and she plays midfield.”

“That’s great. I didn’t know you played soccer.”

“Maybe you could come to one of my games sometime.” Paige watched them order their drinks, then stroll to the table beside them. “Hey, Katie.”

“Hey.” The girl nodded toward the stroller. “That’s Baby Lola and that’s Mia.”

Allie held out her hand to the woman. “I’m Allie.” She made a mental note that the girl had introduced the woman as Mia , not Mom. Interesting.

“Allie’s taking me to buy bras,” Paige supplied. “She’s my dad’s girlfriend.”

A thrill chattered through her as Allie shook Mia’s hand. Had Jack called her his girlfriend at home?

“Pleasure to meet you.” Mia tilted her head to regard her with curious eyes. “You look familiar.”

Dread soured her stomach, and Allie knew what the next words would be out of Mia’s mouth.

Aren’t your parents the ones who ? —

“You work at Belmont, right?” Mia smiled warmly, and Allie relaxed. “I’m the NICU manager there.”

“Oh—Jenna’s friend.” She knew she’d seen the redhead somewhere. “I work for a medical association, so I host a lot of educational seminars at Belmont, but I don’t actually work there.”

“Gotcha.” She glanced at the girls, who were deep in conversation about the last soccer game. Leaning in close, Mia lowered her voice. “I feel like we should have a secret handshake.”

“A secret handshake?” Allie’s antennae went up. “Um?—”

“Stepmoms unite.” Mia chuckled. “I know she said you’re the girlfriend, but it must be serious if you’re taking her bra shopping.”

“Oh.” Color rushed Allie’s cheeks. “I guess so.”

“It’s not always easy, but it’s rewarding as hell.” Sipping her drink, she shot a fond glance at the girls. “Katie’s fantastic, so that makes it smoother. But it still feels awkward sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah.” Allie did know. And it helped knowing she wasn’t the only woman to feel strange tending a child who wasn’t technically hers. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“Don’t mention it.” Mia smiled again. “You’ve got this.”

God, that felt nice to hear. “We should probably get going. We have an appointment in less than five minutes.”

“Good luck with the bra fitting.” With a warm nod, Mia slipped into a whisper again. “And with everything else. You’re doing great, mama. Keep it up.”

“Thank you.” Tears stung Allie’s eyes. She didn’t correct Mia’s assumption that she had any permanent claim to Paige or her dad. It felt nice to be included. To be seen as a woman just doing her best with a kid she adored, but hadn’t given birth to.

Turning to Paige, she picked up her empty cup. “You ready, kiddo?”

She cringed at her word choice. Kiddo? Did people really say that?

But Paige didn’t miss a beat. “Yep!” The girl got to her feet with a smile. “Let’s do it.”

With a quick farewell to Mia and Katie, she tossed Paige’s empty cup and carried her own half-empty one out the door. Allie felt a tingle in her limbs and a faint, funny tug in her belly. Some thread of connection that hadn’t been there thirty minutes ago.

“You nervous?” she asked Paige.

“Not really.” She nibbled her lip. “Maybe a little, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too.”

She led the way down the mall corridor and through the doors of Nordstrom. They rode the escalator up, talking more comfortably now than they had an hour ago. As Allie stepped up to the lingerie counter, Paige did likewise, standing on tiptoe so she could lean forward on her elbows.

Behind the counter, a woman in a starched white shirt and navy pencil skirt stood with her back to them, sorting through a pile of lacy pushup bras. Allie slid her keys from her purse and put them back again, hoping the small jingle would catch the woman’s attention.

Nothing.