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“Please, Quincy,” my stepmother said, her tone suddenly warmer, a sure sign my dad had entered the room she was in.
“Hey, honey,” he said in the background, confirming my suspicion.
My dad had a good heart and worked his butt off. His main fault was that he’d fallen in love with Cynthia.
“If I have to work, I’ll find someone to trade with,” I said, not for Cynthia but for my dad and for Molly, my youngest half-sibling, who was eleven and still legitimately needed someone to stay with her when her parents were gone.
“Oh, thank you, honey. Hannah’s got a cross-country meet, so it’ll just be Molly and Brayden. They’ll be so happy to see you.”
Brayden loved me, but I could promise her, at fourteen, he hated having a babysitter, even me. “I’ll be happy to see them too,” I said, even though I’d just seen Molly earlier this week.
Cynthia repeated what time she needed me. Then we said goodbye—without a thank-you from her—and hung up as I crossed the street and turned the corner to Main.
I tried to force my annoyance with Cynthia out of my mind. It was so tiring. I wished I knew how to get along better with her, but this was our pattern, and I had no idea how to change it. It would take two to fix it, wouldn’t it? And working together wasn’t something my stepmom and I did well.
Thankfully, before I had time to get too absorbed in my irritation, a familiar face down the way distracted me.
“Oh, my goodness, is that the cutest girl in the world?” I called out.
Two-year-old Aster and her parents, Tansy and Reggie, were coming toward me.
“Do you see Quincy?” Tansy asked her daughter, who she was carrying.
They were still about two stores down when Tansy let Aster down, took her hand, and rushed toward me, with Reggie grinning and following at a more normal pace.
“Heeeey,” I said, holding my arms out for Aster.
“Kissssy!” the little girl yelled, which was how she pronounced my name.
When she reached me, I swept her up into my arms and gave her a big hug.
“Look at you,” I said, making a point of checking her out in detail. She wore a long-sleeved black cotton dress with horizontal, rainbow-colored stripes, a denim jacket, and black leggings with a heart print in rainbow colors. Her black hair was pulled up into two balls on top of her head and held up with pink-beaded elastics. “Did you get a new dress?”
Nodding, her irresistible brown eyes earnest, she said, “’Cause it’s cold!”
“Yes, it is. What are you guys doing out and about today?” I asked Aster’s parents.
“We’re going to the Dragonfly Diner. Little miss, here, used the potty for the very first time,” Tansy said.
“Good for you,” I told Aster, holding out my hand and receiving a high five.
“At this rate, potty training’s going to get expensive,” Reggie said, grinning, a proud sparkle in his eyes.
“Hey, congratulations on your school news,” Tansy said.
“Yeah, congrats,” Reggie added.
“Thanks! It feels weird to go back at twenty-eight, but I’m happy to finally have a plan.”
“Teaching, right?”
I nodded. “Elementary ed.”
“You hear that, Aster? Miss Quincy’s going to be a teacher. Maybe she’ll be your teacher when you go to school.”
Aster didn’t appear to know what to say to that. She just grinned big and clapped her hands together once as she stared at me with her earnest eyes.
“I’d love to be your teacher, Aster.”
