A Little Bit Engaged. Teresa Hill

her to stay, neither of which he’d done.

      And she was pregnant, which made the whole situation even more dire.

      Ben had followed her, successfully avoided stalking charges, resisted kidnapping her, and found her in the parking lot of the local high school talking to one of his parishioners, Betty Williams, who happened to teach there. A nicer, more successful do-gooder, he’d never met. And Betty had told him to get Shannon into the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, if he could. They were full, with a waiting list a mile long. Betty had checked.

      It had taken a little unauthorized deal making to get Shannon a spot at the front of the line, and he hated to make other kids wait longer for help, but there was the baby to consider. So Ben had turned wheeler-dealer, offering an as-yet-undefined favor to the director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, which was why he was sneaking out of church this morning, to see what the deal would cost him.

      He arrived at the pretty brick building and was just about to grab the door, when it opened on its own.

      Hmm.

      He liked open doors.

      He thought they were a sign that someone was doing something right.

      He was just about to walk through that open door when a tiny, curly-headed girl came barreling out. Afraid she was going to charge out of the building and right into the street, he yelled, “Hey, wait!”

      She stopped, standing with her back to the door, not trying to escape but holding the door open and gazing up at him with a puzzled smile.

      “Oh,” he said. “I thought you were taking off.”

      “Not by myself. I’m only six,” she said, as if he had the IQ of a tomato. Maybe one that had been defrocked along with the chicken?

      “Well…good,” he said, bested by a six-year-old. “I tell you what. The door looks heavy. How ’bout I hold it?”

      She shrugged, then grinned. Once he had the door, she did a little dance step and spun around. “Know what? I’m gonna be a dancer when I get big.”

      “Great.”

      She did another little twirl step right there in the hallway, and the little red ribbon that had been dangling from the end of one curl floated to the floor.

      “Allie, wait,” a woman inside called out.

      Ben looked up to see a woman sitting just inside the door. She had her hands full, a baby cradled against her shoulder and a toddler missing a shoe whom she’d managed to catch by the hood of his jacket.

      “You don’t want to leave your mom,” Ben said, moving to put his body between hers and the hallway, in case she decided to run for it.

      “She’s not my mom,” Allie said. “She’s my cousin. My mommy left, and her cousin has a little baby and a not-so-little one, and she’s trying to take care of me, too. Only, we’re a handful. I’m here to get a big sister. What about you?”

      “I think I’m too old for them to give me a big brother. What do you think?”

      She giggled. “You’re really old.”

      “And you lost your hair ribbon,” he said. “Let me get it.”

      Ben got down on his knees beside her, happy to have a problem he could solve for a change. He grabbed the ribbon, then didn’t quite know what to do with it. She really had a mountain of hair, and it was sticking out every which way. He wasn’t sure what he could accomplish by way of subduing it with one ribbon. Was it for show, or did it have a real purpose?

      “Looks like you two need some help,” a nice, soft, feminine voice said.

      Ben glanced to his right and saw legs, really nice legs. He looked up and saw a pretty blonde in a no-nonsense, dark-brown suit and a crisp white blouse. There was a brown satchel in her hand and an I-can-fix-this look on her face.

      Okay, so he couldn’t even get the hair ribbon thing right. Maybe it really wasn’t his day. Maybe he shouldn’t be out loose on the streets like this, even if he hadn’t committed any crimes yet.

      “This is my friend, Allie,” he told the pretty blonde. “She’s lost her ribbon.”

      “Again,” Allie added.

      “Again? Oh. Well, let’s see if we can get it to stay in your hair.” The woman put down her satchel and took the ribbon in hand, working what looked like magic with the girl’s unruly hair in a matter of minutes with nothing but her two hands, and then secured the ribbon. “Double knot and tight. That’s the key to keeping a hair ribbon in place.”

      “Really?” Allie bounced up and down and then stared out of the corner of her eyes, trying to find the ribbon.

      “It’s still there,” Ben told Allie, then let himself look at the woman again. She knew how to fix ribbons and hair, and she was kind as well. Seemed like she liked children, too. He wondered how she knew about the double-knotted-ribbon thing. “Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome. She’s adorable.”

      “Oh…she’s not mine,” Ben said, happy to have an excuse to clear that up, just in case. “I’m just the official door holder.”

      “I’m here to get a big sister,” Allie said. “Are you gonna get a little sister?”

      Good girl, Ben thought, altogether pleased with the turn of events.

      He’d let Allie interrogate the pretty blonde, and then maybe he could casually work into the conversation the fact that he had no wife and no children and then… Who knew? He might even get a lunch date out of the deal.

      Ben couldn’t remember the last time he had a date.

      He checked to see if he had his clerical collar on, then remembered he didn’t. Mrs. Ryan, with a very disapproving look, had reminded him of that this morning, but he’d gotten distracted and hadn’t put it on.

      Okay. This was not a bad thing.

      The collar made people uncomfortable.

      Especially women.

      Not that he was all that good with women even without the collar.

      “I already have two little sisters,” the woman said. “Real sisters, I mean. But you can’t have too many little sisters, right?” She looked at Ben.

      “Right,” he said. Could he interest her in a pregnant fifteen-year-old?

      “So I came to get another one,” the woman said.

      “Oh, good. I pick you,” Allie said, then turned and yelled back into the office. “Miss Grace? I found one all by myself! See?”

      In the waiting room, a woman kneeling at the feet of the now completely shoeless toddler looked up and sighed. The little boy was trying to wiggle his way off the chair. A second woman was holding the baby, who was sucking on his fists.

      “Allie, Miss Charlotte will find you a big sister. You can’t just grab one in the hallway.” Miss Grace grabbed the toddler by his left ankle, which kept him from sliding out of the chair, but he howled in protest. To top it all off, the baby started crying. The poor mother looked as though she might sit down and cry, too.

      Ben had seen that exhausted-mother look before and stepped in. “Ma’am, would it be okay if I walked you and Allie and the boys to your car?”

      She gave him a look that said she would have kissed his feet, if need be, to get help to the car with Allie and the two squirmy, crying boys. Allie came to his side and put her hand trustingly in his. Miss Grace handed him the toddler, whom he held against his shoulder.

      “Thank you so much. I’ll get the shoes, the baby and the diaper bag—”

      “I’ve got the diaper bag,” said the pretty blonde who was a whiz with ribbons.

      Ben,