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“What then? Mandy?” Kit demanded.
“I’m not saying. I’ll keep it to myself until I need a favor. It’s nice to have something over my brother’s head.
“Is it about Tess? He was pretty happy to be next to her while we ate. And he actually talked to her,” Kit said, her expression thoughtful.
“Not going to say.” Mandy yawned.
“Does it have anything to do with the fact I haven’t heard her say a contraction?” Kit asked eagerly.
Mandy’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t she?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked at the same time.
“You know, a shortened form of words usually using an apostrophe.” Kit focused on him as she explained, as if he didn’t know that. Then Kit turned back to Mandy, “I don’t know why I noticed it, but I did. I guess being a teacher, I pick up on little things,”
Math watched her watch Mandy fall asleep, and then she turned to him, pointing at their sister. “Keep an eye on that one.”
“I try,” he replied as she walked away. Mandy wasn’t the sister he was concerned about these days. Kit’s marriage had imploded when she was two months pregnant, and now she had five kids to raise with no help. His sister was up for the task, but the new baby was wearing her down.
Since the boy had fallen asleep in his arms, he decided to try and take a nap as well since everyone else was.
When he next opened his eyes, the boy was gone, and so was Mandy from the couch. Getting up, he decided to go looking for Tess. He was her ride, after all.
Walking into the kitchen, he saw a couple of women sitting at the table talking, but none were Tess—or Mandy or Mia for that matter. Math grabbed a piece of cake and asked casually, “Where are the girls?”
His mom looked at him with a grin. “You mean Tess? Your sister and Mia took her to book club.”
“No, Mom. All the girls, not just that one.”
“You seemed pretty interested in her today,” Dotty said from the table.
“I was not. I was trying to be friendly. Isn’t that what you guys wanted?” He was no longer hungry for the cake he had taken.
“It’s not what we want, Math. It’s what you want,” his mother replied nonchalantly.
“I bet,” he said, leaving the room with his cake.
Math went back to sit in his recliner, but he couldn’t pay attention to the game. She had snuck away while he slept. But since she had book club, he couldn’t rush over to her apartment to see if she would let him in again. Of course, he had his kids anyway, so that plan was out. Mia and his mom had taken them here when they made Math go get Tess, but he was taking them home.
The woman had been infuriating from the moment she’d opened the door, phone to her ear. The argument about her not joining his family for the holiday had been heated, too heated. By the time he had gotten her back literally against the wall, he couldn’t keep his hands or lips to himself. Her response had been as heated as his own. Once he had gotten her into the bedroom, he knew there was no stopping.
Remembering her arguing with him, naked with just-had-sex hair, made him groan out loud. In his lifetime, he had never had an argument with a naked woman, let alone a sexy, naked woman. But that woman could argue no matter where she was or what she was wearing. It was a turn-on.
He was glad he had brought her with him to dinner. She had fit in with the large group as if she came over there every weekend, holding babies and making jokes with his parents and aunt and uncle. For some reason, she just fit in—maybe too well, based on his mother’s comments.
He needed to ignore her for a while. Or maybe he should just stop by one night to see how book club went. Or maybe not; the more time he spent with her, the more perfectly she fit into his life. And she wasn’t supposed to have a place in his life.
CHAPTER12
“I say at least seven,”Natasha whispered in Tess’s ear.
Turning to her oldest friend, Tess held up six fingers, then pointed at a possible one from her spot in the middle of a large group of people in the church, trying not to be obvious about the accusation.
“Not Katya, she just had one,” Natasha whispered to her.
“Does not matter,” Tess said about her twenty-four-year-old niece sitting in front of them. The women were playing their favorite church game: how many in their family would have a baby by the next time this holiday rolled around. They had been doing it since they found out how babies were made, about the time the family really started to expand. The game never got old. With their massive family, there were always women pregnant.
The atmosphere was a little different from the week before, with Mia in Math’s Lutheran church. This was more formal and much longer. It had already been an hour, and the service wasn’t even halfway over. Everybody was in attendance today, from her parents to Ilya’s newest grandbaby. It was always fun to see everyone, even though it was a little overwhelming as their numbers grew every year.
