LITMIR.BIZ

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had a rough couple of days and deserved a treat. “You know, we are pretty much finished with the accounts for today, aren’t we, Kate?” he asked.

      “I actually finished the last one thirty minutes ago,” she said. “But then Mrs. Tolleson called, and I wanted to get her the policy information she asked for. She seemed like a really sweet lady on the phone.”

      “She is. She and her husband own the variety store on the square. Maybe we will see them when we go for ice cream. So, are you at a good stopping point?” Mitch asked.

      “You could go get ice cream with us?” Dee asked. “Please?”

      “You want me to go, too?” Her surprise at his question was evident. For the past two days, she’d worked with him here, but she’d always walked across the street and had her meals at the B and B with the Tingles and the other guests. Asking her to eat with them at their home had seemed too personal, and Mitch had wanted to keep their relationship as professional as possible.

      But this was different. His girls were feeling better, and he wanted to celebrate. It only made sense to invite the woman who’d helped them through their sickness.

      “Of course I want you to go,” he said. “Unless, say, you don’t like ice cream?”

      “You don’t like ice cream?” Dee’s eyes widened in shock. “Why?”

      Kate laughed, causing Emmie to lift her head and smile, and then she put her hand to Kate’s cheek. “Kay-Kay.”

      A ripple of something passed over Mitch, but he swallowed past the feeling.

      “I do like ice cream,” she said to Dee. “I like it very much, in fact, and I’d love to get some with all of you.” She glanced at Mitch again. “If you’re sure it’s okay for me to go.”

      “Of course.” He forced a laugh and hoped she saw it as a casual invitation, which was exactly what it was, nothing like a date or anything.

      “Yay, Miss Kate is going, too!” Dee’s high-pitched cheer delivered near Mitch’s right ear caused him to flinch.

      “I guess I am,” Kate said, squeezing Emmie in a hug. “Let’s go get some ice cream, Emmie.” From the smile claiming Kate’s face, he thought she might actually be more excited about the treat than his girls.

      * * *

      Kate waved to Mr. Tingle, trimming the azalea bushes on the side of the bed-and-breakfast, as they began the short walk to the square. She’d already grown very fond of the sweet couple that ran the B and B. They reminded her of the kind of parents anyone would want, the kind she’d never had, and the kind she wanted her own daughter to have.

      She blinked past the emotion causing her throat to tense. Her little girl undoubtedly had parents like that. Would Chad and his wife be okay with her having one more? And would they believe that she could be a good mom to Lainey after what she’d done in the past?

      “Look at the flowers on those trees, Miss Kate.” Dee pointed to the row of Yoshino cherry trees lining Maple Street and leading to the square. The vivid pink blossoms resembled oversize roses and covered nearly every branch of the stunning trees. Her comment pulled Kate from the fear of Chad’s reaction to her arrival in Claremont and brought her back to the joy of spending time with these two little girls. This must be what motherhood felt like. And it was wonderful.

      Kate swallowed. “I do see them, and they’re so pretty.”

      “Pretty,” Emmie echoed. But she wasn’t looking at the trees; instead, she patted Kate’s cheek the way she’d done several times throughout the day and repeated, “Pretty.”

      Kate kissed her chubby cheek. “You’re pretty.”

      “And me, too?” Dee asked. Mitch had put her down midway to the square. She still held his hand but looked at Kate for an answer.

      Kate recalled the many times growing up when she asked her stepmom that very question. “Am I pretty?” And the traditional answer, a quick “You’ll do.”

      She moved closer to Mitch and Dee so she could reach out and run a hand along the soft curl of one of Dee’s pigtails as she answered, “You’re very pretty, Dee. In fact, you’re beautiful.”

      Dee’s smile beamed, her walk turned into a skip and Kate felt a rush of warmth to her heart. She would never let her child wonder whether she were pretty. She just hoped she got the chance to tell Lainey, and soon.

      “Bew-ful,” Emmie said.

      “Yes, you’re beautiful, too.” Laughing, Kate looked from Emmie to Mitch. Though he continued walking toward the town square, his eyes were focused on Kate, not merely looking at her but studying her in a way that sent a shiver down her spine. What was he thinking now? Should she not tell his girls they were beautiful? Because they were, and she so wanted to make sure they knew. “Everything okay?” she asked him.

      He inhaled thickly, let it out and then nodded. “Yes, everything’s fine.” Then, as though he needed to say it before he changed his mind, he added, “Thank you, Kate.”

      Confused, she asked, “For what?”

      “For helping me this week,” he said, “and for reminding the girls...of what they are.” He tweaked Dee’s cheek. “You are beautiful.”

      “You’re beautiful, too, Daddy!” Dee continued to skip, and her daddy grinned.

      And Kate noticed that, while she might not call him beautiful, Mitch did have an appealing quality, especially when he looked at his girls, and occasionally...when he looked at Kate.

      * * *

      Mitch wiped the smear of strawberry ice cream from Emmie’s chin with a napkin, and she gave him a full baby-teeth grin.

      “Tank oo, Daddy.”

      “You’re welcome,” he said.

      Dee had wanted to sit by Kate at the Sweet Stop candy shop while they ate their ice cream, and now that the ice cream was gone, she remained at Kate’s side. “Can we take Miss Kate to see the toy store?” she asked.

      Mitch gathered the abundance of used napkins from their table and, with Emmie perched on his hip, took them to the trash. “That’s mighty nice of you to want to show Miss Kate the toy store,” he said, knowing that the Tiny Tots Treasure Box was Dee’s favorite store on the square, with the Sweet Stop running a close second. “Are you sure Miss Kate wants to see the toy store?”

      “Everyone loves toys, and Miss Kate loves games, and they’ve got lots of games there, too.” Her pigtails bobbed to emphasize the fact. “Don’t you want to see it, Miss Kate?”

      Kate smiled as Dee reached for her hand. “If your dad says we have time to go,” she answered.

      “Way to throw it back on me,” he teased, but truly he didn’t mind taking his girls to their beloved toy store.

      Kate grinned. “Sorry, but you’re the daddy, so you’re the boss, right?”

      Dee nodded. “Yep, he’s the daddy.”

      Mitch held the door and tilted his head toward the square. “I guess we’re going to the toy store, then.”

      Obviously excited to hear their new point of destination, Emmie gave him one of her openmouthed kisses on the cheek, which Mitch was fairly certain would leave him sticky. He didn’t care. He lived for those hugs.

      Dee, looking as happy as Emmie, took Kate’s hand and tugged her toward the sidewalk. “Come on, Miss Kate. You’ll like the toy store.”

      “I’m sure I will,” she said, passing close to Mitch as they walked through the doorway, the hint of peaches following in her wake.

      “Mr. Gillespie?”

      Ignoring the impulse to inhale deeper, he turned toward the teenager who’d been working

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