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“Dick’s!” I grip her shoulders and move her out of the kitchen. “She said Dick’s, as in the sporting goods store.”
Ainsley looks over her shoulder and squints her eyes at me. “Ariel left for soccer cleats?”
“Yep. Why don’t you go change into your Elsa costume? I love how beautiful you look, like the Snow Queen.”
Ainsley shifts carefully down the hall, and Tara groans.
“Sure. Let her dress as the one who isolates herself in an ice castle, not to be loved by anyone.”
“Better than the sister who marries the first man she meets.”
“At least she takes chances.” Tara smiles and bats her eyelashes.
“You’re a bad influence.” I accusingly point at her while grinning.
“Hey, everyone needs a fun Aunt Tara.” She places her now-empty glass on the counter and then lifts her purse off the stool. “Okay, I’m off the clock and ready to let loose. It’s ladies’ night at Lone Tavern. Gonna go see if I can find me a cowboy.”
I walk Tara to the door and convince her to keep the jeans and tank she has on and not switch to the minidress and boots that was her sexy cowgirl costume from last Halloween. I want her to meet a nice man, not get groped in a stall by the bad-boy sheriff.
With her gone, I head back into my kitchen and clean up. Tara is an awesome friend and babysitter, but she certainly makes a mess wherever she goes. Remnants of the brownies she baked are still on the counter and sink.
I’m finished cleaning when Ainsley comes back into the living area. I do a double take at her next costume of choice.
“I’m a firewoman!” she declares as she runs around the couch, making siren sounds, and then stops at my feet. “When I grow up, I want to be a firefighter, like the one who saved you last night. Was it a lady firefighter? Do I look like her?”
With her little grin, chin cleft, and precocious sense of humor, my little girl does indeed resemble the fireman who rescued me last night.
I take a seat on the couch and pull my daughter onto my lap. “Him. It was a him.”
“Was he handsome?”
“Does that matter?”
“Answer the question, Mom.”
“Yes, baby. He was very handsome,” I say with a smile and brush her hair behind her ear. That information seems to appease her. “Any more questions?”
“No. I’m good. I love you.” She taps my nose and then runs off into her room with a hand on her firefighter’s helmet so it doesn’t slip off her head.
Raising an independent woman is going to be the death of me. Especially one who reminds me a little too much of the man who she is dressing up as.
To my surprise, I liked the mermaid costume better.
five
“REALLY, JILLIAN, YOU COULDpretend to be coy. Jonathan is a catch and someone you should be eager to have a drink with.”
I sigh into the phone as my hands sink deep into a dirty pot in my kitchen sink. It’s been three days since I lost my phone in the fire, and I finally have a new cell phone.
“Absolutely not, Mother. I have no desire to go out with Jonathan Longbottom. The man has a thing for young twenty-somethings who think Smirnoff Ice is a luxury cocktail.”
“You were a young twenty-something once. Wouldn’t have hurt for you to flirt a little when you were a desirable young woman and could meet a suitable man.”
“I’m still quite desirable now.” I scrub tomato sauce off the sides of the pot. I brush a little too rough, and my fist punches the water, sending dirty suds into my face. I gag a little.
“You’re my gorgeous, amazing daughter who is a trailblazer. That said, you can’t deny it’s a hard sell when you’re a thirty-two-year-old single mother. Not to mention one who conceived in the most unnatural of ways.” She says the final statement as if she were sucking on a sour candy.
“Tell me how you really feel.”
