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Emma rolled her eyes. “Tiffany wasn’t very original. Jane and Janey.”
“I panicked,” Tiffany said with a careless shrug. “Why have you been running ragged since four a.m.?”
“I’m on a case and that’s the way they go sometimes.”
Rita handed Kit a decorated cookie shaped like a turkey. “Sometimes it’s run, run, run, and sometimes it’s hurry up and wait.”
Kit’s lips twitched because Rita was cute. “That is the honest truth.”
Rita raised a blond brow. “You laugh now, but one day I’ll be a cop.”
“You can do whatever you want to do, Rita McKittrick,” Kit said simply. “I believe in you.”
Rita’s smile made a little of the hard day fade away.
Yes, Kit had needed to come home.
“So…,” Tiffany said casually, pretending to focus on the cookie she was icing, but she was really studying Kit. “How is Dr. Sam?”
Rita and Emma exchanged a look of suppressed laughter.
Kit shook her head at their obvious attempts at matchmaking. “Last I saw him, he was fine. We had a meeting at the precinct about the case. He’s my colleague.”
“Uh-huh,” Tiffany said. “He’s also very nice.”
Kit drew a breath, needing to cut this off. “He is. Tell me about this placement, girls. Are you going to go to school or homeschool? What’s the plan?”
“Dr. Sam recommended we go to school when he dropped us off at New Horizons last night,” Emma said shyly, but there was a persistent gleam in her eye.
Rita nodded. “He said I should go back to school, too, since I’ll have wingmen now.” She giggled when Emma gave her a good-natured nudge of her elbow. “Or wing-girls.”
Rita had refused to go to school the spring before because bullies had taunted her when her mother’s killer had been arrested and details of the crime had been made public. Asshole bullies. Kit had wanted to knock some heads together because Rita had been crushed. That Rita was entertaining the idea of returning to the classroom was good news.
That Sam had been the instigator was no surprise.
That the girls sought to bring up the psychologist’s name at every opportunity was no surprise, either. Kit had revealed a lot about herself on the street the night before, but she couldn’t be sorry. It was likely that the girls would have bolted had she not earned their trust, and then who knew where they’d be?
“He’s right.” Kit took a bite of the cookie, nearly moaning at the buttery taste. “When do you reenroll?”
Rita drew a deep breath. “Tomorrow. I’m going in with Tiff and Em and we’re all going to sign up together.”
“That is very good news. I’m proud of you, kid.” Kit reached across the table and ruffled Rita’s pink-and-blue-streaked curls, making the teenager scowl and abandon the cookie she was icing to smooth her hair.
“Kiiiiit,” she whined. “Stoppppp.”
“Okaaaaay,” Kit whined back, then laughed. “Mom, do you need any help?”
“Pfft. Of course not.” Betsy put a plate in front of her.
Kit’s mouth watered at the aroma coming off the fried chicken. “So hungry.” She dug in, listening to the girls’ chatter as they returned to their cookie decorating.
“We’re going to take the cookies to the retirement home,” Tiffany said. “The one Dr. Sam volunteers at.”
Kit thought of the residents and staff of Shady Oaks, so saddened by both Frankie‘s and Benny’s deaths. “They’ll appreciate that. They’re missing their friends right now and some of them have no family to give them comfort.”
“We know how that is,” Emma said, then clamped her lips together, as if she’d already said too much about her background.
Rita gave her a hug, and the girls went back to cookie decorating. Their conversation resumed with lighter topics, like what they’d wear and who could borrow whose clothes for school next week.
