A Little Bit Engaged. Teresa Hill

that Kate was, she had Gretchen call to confirm.

      The meeting was set for Magnolia Falls Park, a long strip of land that ran along the river though town. Kate arrived promptly at 5:25, excited for the first time since the whole Big Brothers/Big Sisters debacle began.

      She couldn’t wait to see Allie again. Surely things would go smoothly from here on out, at least between her and her new little sister. With two real sisters of her own, Kate felt like she could hold her own with any little girl, especially one as outgoing and happy as Allie. All Charlotte asked was that Kate touch base with Allie once a week, hopefully get together for two hours or so, the activities of their own choice, from educational to pure fun.

      Pure fun had never been Kate’s forte, but maybe Allie could teach her.

      Once the girl arrived.

      Kate stood at the meeting spot—next to the ice cream stand in the midst of Magnolia Falls Park—at precisely five-thirty and fought the urge to pace.

      The only young female she saw was…well, frightening was the first word that came to mind.

      Nothing impish or cute about this girl.

      She might be thirteen and she might be twenty. It was impossible to tell. She wore a little ribbed tank top that clung to her uncharacteristically pale skin. A disreputable-looking black leather jacket and oversize black cargo pants with a huge black belt and what looked like army boots.

      So…she definitely wasn’t a shoe person.

      She’d probably done that really bad dye job on her hair herself—inky black, of course—and had pierced her ears too many times to count, plus her eyebrows. She’d painted her fingernails black and managed to find purplish-black lipstick somewhere.

      She pursed those wicked-colored lips and took a slow, deep drag off her cigarette, staring belligerently back at Kate and arching a blackened brow as if to say, What is your problem?

      Kate nearly laughed at that. This girl was the one with problems.

      She dismissed Kate with another smirk and started to blow smoke rings into the air, much to the annoyance of the ice cream man, who was trying to wave it away with his hands.

      “It’s not Halloween yet, is it, Kate?” Bernie, the ice cream man, asked.

      The girl looked bored, as she took another puff on the cigarette, her gaze remaining dismissively on Kate.

      “Not for another few days, Bernie,” Kate said.

      “Can I get you something, Kate?”

      Nerves getting the best of her, she said, “Sure, I’ll have a fudge bar.”

      He dug it out of his cart and Katie took it, handing him a dollar bill and thanking him.

      No one else had shown up. This was the only ice cream cart in the park. It was in the same place every day. Everyone in town knew where it was.

      Waiting impatiently, Kate wondered how much of her own life story she should share with Allie. Kate’s own father died at the hands of a convenience-store robber when she was only eight. And of course, her mother died of cancer six months ago, when Kate was twenty-seven. Life had not been easy for her, and yet she thought she and her siblings had turned out okay, her current situation with Joe and that odd thing with the priest notwithstanding. There wasn’t a wild, rebellious, indignant or irresponsible bone in Kate Cassidy’s body.

      Which made her think of the girl beside her. If Katie had to guess, she’d say the girl was at least wild and rebellious, and she seemed to have a good head start on indignant, just looking at Katie, in her favorite black suit and her pretty black pumps. How could anyone object to a classic black suit?

      She glanced at her watch. Five thirty-four.

      She ate her fudge bar. Ghoul Girl, as Katie had come to think of her, finished her cigarette and threw what was left of it down onto the ground.

      “Hey,” Bernie warned her. “That’s not where it goes, and believe me, you don’t want to find out what the fine for littering in this park is.”

      That earned him a glare, too, but the girl picked up the cigarette butt and threw it into the trash. Katie finished her fudge bar and threw it away.

      Five thirty-seven.

      She had hoped to make the 6:15 advanced-cardio-burn class at the gym, but time would soon become an issue. Katie pulled out her cell phone and paged through the numbers programmed in the phone, for Charlotte Sims’s number. Charlotte, cheery as always, answered.

      “Hi. This is Kate Cassidy. I was supposed to meet my little sister seven minutes ago, but she’s not here. I was wondering if she’d called to cancel?”

      “Katie. Hi,” Charlotte said. “She’s not there? I hope nothing happened. I’ve got her cell phone number right here. Let me try her and see. Can you hang on?”

      “Sure.” Thank goodness for cell phones. She tried to never be without hers. Although, a six-year-old having a cell phone…? That sounded a bit odd.

      Charlotte put Katie on hold, and, oddly enough, someone else’s phone rang. Ghoul Girl’s. Even her phone was all black.

      “Yes,” the girl said into the phone. “Yes, I’m here. I was even early.”

      Oh, no.

      “Sure,” the girl said. “I can hang on.”

      “Darling?” Charlotte came back on the line with Kate. “She says she’s right there. I don’t know how you two could be missing each other.”

      Kate gaped at the girl, looking back at Kate with what she imagined was equal parts horror and disgust. Turning to put her back to the girl, Katie whispered into the phone, “I thought I was getting Allie. Remember?” Impish. Pigtails.

      “I know. I’m sorry. I thought Melanie called you. We really needed someone for Shannon. I don’t think it’s going to be easy to get through to her, and when I spoke to Charlie about it, he said you were the one for the job. In fact, he said you can handle anything,” Charlotte said, sealing Katie’s fate then and there.

      She couldn’t have Charlie Sims thinking she couldn’t handle one rebellious, frighteningly dressed, nicotine-addicted teenage girl.

      “Oh,” Kate heard herself say. “Okay. Whatever you need.”

      “Great. Her name is Shannon Donnelly. Don’t let the look fool you. She’s only fifteen and very, very intelligent.”

      Intelligent? No way, Katie thought, glancing at Shannon, who looked bored once again and was reaching for another cigarette.

      “Call me later and let me know how everything goes,” Charlotte said.

      “Sure.” Kate closed the phone and faced Miss Shannon Donnelly.

      Shannon lit another cigarette, took a big puff and said, “Hey, sis.”

      Kate nearly choked. Surely this was her punishment for coming into this program for all the wrong motives and maybe for flirting with the priest and not facing up to her problems with Joe.

      “What’s the matter?” Ghoul Girl asked. “Scared?”

      “Of you? Amused is more like it.”

      It wasn’t a promising start, considering she was supposed to help this girl, but what could she do? Politeness wouldn’t get her anywhere, Kate thought, and neither would kindness right away. She couldn’t afford to let the girl think she was intimidated, either.

      Time for some tough love.

      Or…tough affection, maybe.

      Tough help.

      “You really do look like you dressed up for Halloween today,” Kate said, testing her theory.

      “And you look like an uptight old woman,” the girl returned.

      Okay.