“I’m not slow, I’m cautious,” she protested.
Marie giggled. “I know. It’s hilarious. You go on some crazy expedition in South America and then come back and drive fifty-five on the highway.”
Kelsey sniffed. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“You should. It’s one of the many things I love about you.”
“What about the dad?” she asked, feeling her ability to object slipping away.
“They’re divorced. I think he’s moving out here in a month or so, but Jenna didn’t tell me much about him.” Marie grabbed a manila folder from the counter. “Here. All you have to do is drive over, introduce yourself to Jenna, explain the situation, and have her call me if she has any questions.”
Kelsey held up her hands and backed away, refusing to take the envelope. “You assumed I’d say yes.”
Marie held out her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “You’re my best friend. If I can’t count on you, who can I count on?”
Refusing to meet her friend’s puppy-dog eyes, Kelsey scowled down at a pot that bore the remnants of blackened spaghetti sauce. “I seriously know nothing about taking care of kids. I’d have to feed them and—well, what else do you even do with kids their age?” She tried to imagine herself entertaining a trio of kids, but all that came to mind was a skinny thirteen-year-old leading a group of campers into a bear-infested forest. Her skin crawled with tension. “I’m better cooking on a camp stove than a real one, and I don’t know the first thing about TV shows or video games.”
Marie smiled. “But that’s good. You’ll take them outside and play games.”
“Right, then they’ll probably put a frog in my pocket and set a pointy pinecone on my chair.”
“Honey, this is not World War II Austria, and you are definitely not Julie Andrews.”
Kelsey sailed on, ignoring her friend’s protests, determined to take one last shot at avoiding what would doubtless be a complete and total disaster. “Well, my repertoire of kid games is limited to Duck, Duck, Goose and Red Rover, which I’m pretty sure are both illegal now because of liability issues. And heaven forbid they need someone to do laundry. I don’t even buy white things because they end up pink. Basically, I haven’t the slightest idea how normal families function.”
Marie shifted Oscar to her other shoulder. She walked around and thrust the envelope into Kelsey’s unguarded hand, then gave her a gentle smile. “Maybe it’s time you learned.”
Chapter Three
Ross stood in front of the large office window, cell phone to his ear, taking in the incredible view of distant mountain peaks cutting a jagged line across the cloudless sky. He’d only been in Colorado for twelve hours, and still hadn’t adjusted to looking out a window and seeing mountains instead of skyscrapers, or feeling an endless canopy of blue sky stretching over him instead of buildings looming all around.
He waited for his sister Melissa’s answering machine to pick up before he started speaking. “Hey, ’Lis, it’s Ross. Hope little Lizzie slept well last night. I’m just calling to say that I arrived in Denver and the kids are fine. Jenna got off to China this morning without a hitch. If you see Mom this morning can you tell her I called? I’ll call back later this week.”
As he hung up, it occurred to him that it was almost eleven on the East Coast, and his niece Lizzie, who had been born a scant six weeks before, was probably going down for her midmorning nap. It would be hard to remember that he now had two time zones between him and the rest of his family.
Add it to the list of things to adjust to…
Feeling at home in Denver would take time, he knew. After all, it had only been three days ago that Jenna had phoned him, panicked and teary because she’d been asked to fly to China to deal with an unhappy client who couldn’t get their software to work. Tying up his affairs so he could fly out two days later had been intense, to say the least. But what alternative had he had? They had talked about sending the kids back to New York for the month, but Ross hadn’t liked the idea. The move to Denver had been hard enough as it was; he refused to put the kids through it twice.
His phone dinged a moment later. It was an e-mail from his brother Brit.
How’s the Mile High City? You know you’ve got to get a babysitter when you hit the bars tonight, right?
Ross rolled his eyes. He hated typing on the tiny phone screen, so he sat down at Jenna’s desk and turned on her desktop computer. After clicking through to his e-mail account, he typed a quick response.