A Little Bit Engaged. Teresa Hill

matched up with a little brother or sister. Two of them were men, which left three possibilities for Shannon Delaney.

      Her husband came on the line.

      “Hi, honey. I need your opinion about something. That secretary from your friend Tom’s office? The one who’s volunteering for me? I need someone who can handle a fifteen-year-old. A tough one. What do you think?”

      “Sorry, darling. She’s a nice lady, but I just don’t think she’s tough enough.”

      “Okay.” Charlotte closed the folder in front of her and reached for another one. “What about the decorator? Gloria Sandling?”

      “Well…she wouldn’t be my first choice. Didn’t Kate Cassidy sign up?”

      Charlotte grinned. “Yes, she did.”

      “If you’ve got a tough case, Kate’s your girl, honey. Smart, stubborn, responsible, knows her way around kids. She helped raise her two younger sisters after their father died, and she doesn’t know the meaning of the world quit.”

      “Sounds perfect,” Charlotte said. And she had not done this. Really, she hadn’t. “It’s just that she asked for a younger child. In fact, she met a cute six-year-old in our office today.”

      “Trust me, honey. Give Tom’s secretary the six-year-old, and give your problem child to Kate.”

      “Okay, I will. Thanks, Charlie. I love you. You’re so good to me. And so useful a man to have as a husband.”

      “I do my best, darlin’.”

      His contacts worked wonders for her when she needed volunteers or money, and he wasn’t shy at all about exploiting those contacts for a good cause.

      She told him she’d see him soon and then hung up, puzzling over exactly how to handle Kate. She had practically promised her the six-year-old, and she did feel guilty about that. But Shannon was in trouble, and it had nothing to do with Charlotte wanting to meddle in Kate and Ben’s lives.

      She was just doing what was best for Shannon. She’d pair Kate up with the girl, and if in the course of helping Shannon, she and Ben Taylor had reason to get together, well…Charlotte would leave that up to fate.

      Kate got home that evening to find her middle sister, Kathie, who was also her roommate, on the phone in the kitchen, and by the look on Kathie’s face, she had to be hearing all about Kate flirting with a priest!

      The combination of guilt and curiosity in her eyes was all too clear.

      “You know,” Kathie looked absolutely pained as she broke into the conversation, “she just walked in the door.”

      “No,” Kate mouthed. Whoever it was, she didn’t want to talk to them.

      “Oh. Okay,” Kathie said into the phone. “I’ll tell her.”

      Kate winced as she stepped out of her heels. Not even caring about neatness tonight, she left them by the coffee table along with her satchel and headed for the kitchen, loitering just outside the door, while Kathie stood in it, looking even more guilty as she managed to get rid of the person on the phone.

      “Let me guess,” Kate said, as her sister hung up. “Someone couldn’t wait to tell you about the priest who was flirting with me?”

      “Huh?” her sister said.

      “That wasn’t—?”

      “You were flirting with a priest?”

      Kate groaned aloud. “Who was that?”

      “Joe.”

      “Even better,” Kate muttered. She wondered if he’d heard about her and the priest yet. Honestly, that man had made her so mad. How dare he presume to give her advice on handling her relationship, when all the time he was just trying to get her phone number so he could ask her out?

      “What’s going on?” Kathie asked. “Joe said— Well, he thought something was wrong. That something had happened. Did something happen?”

      “I don’t know,” Kate said, ridiculous as that was. It was her life. If anyone knew, it should be her.

      “Why was a priest flirting with you?” Kathie asked.

      “I don’t know. Because he’s a jerk?” But he hadn’t seemed like a jerk. He’d seemed like a perfectly nice man. That I’m-no-good-with-women thing… She’d bought that completely.

      “So, Joe heard about a priest who was flirting with you and—”

      “I don’t know.” Kate was nearly in tears, and she never cried.

      Her sister looked upset, too. Really upset. What was that about? Maybe just because Kate was so upset, and it took a lot to get her this way. Maybe Kathie thought something awful had happened.

      Kate sniffled and swiped away tears.

      “Did I do something?” her sister asked.

      “No.”

      “Because, if I did… Joe seemed to think something was really wrong, and you’re crying. You never cry. And…well, if it’s me…I’d never want to do anything to hurt you. You know that, don’t you?”

      Kate was absolutely bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

      “I don’t know,” her sister said.

      It was like a disease, spreading through the kitchen. The I-don’t-know-what’s-wrong disease. It had been such an odd day.

      “What did Joe say?” Kate asked.

      Kathie hesitated, studying her sister, finally saying, “That he wasn’t going to make it home today. Hopefully tomorrow. That he’d call you as soon as he knew for sure. But…he sounded like he thought you were going to break up with him. Are you going to break up with him?”

      “I don’t know,” Kate said.

      Her sister started to cry, too, then. Maybe everyone was having an awful day.

      “I’m sorry,” Kathie said. “So sorry.”

      “Me, too.” She didn’t even know for what, but she was sorry, and she gave her sister a hug.

      “I miss Mom,” Katie said.

      “I do, too.”

      And they both stood there, completely miserable, crying for reasons Kate couldn’t begin to understand.

      Chapter Four

      Shannon Delaney was back in church the next morning before school. Ben spotted her slipping into the sanctuary that morning soon after he arrived.

      He’d already been lectured by Mrs. Ryan and promised to stay right where he belonged, safely in his office, that day. Truth was he was scared to go out into the streets, almost too scared to open his mouth around Shannon. It was no telling what kind of trouble he might cause.

      Shannon walked up to the pew where she’d sat yesterday and sank into it, waiting for him, he thought. He walked over to her and found her staring, not sure what was going on at first, then realized he was wearing his white collar today. He might never take it off.

      Still, she stared. He fidgeted, tugged at it and finally said, “Is it that hard to talk to me when I’m wearing this?”

      “It’s just weird,” Shannon said.

      He gave her wild, spiked, jet-black hair, pale face and black lipstick a slow going-over and said, “If you say so.”

      She glowered at him. “You seemed so nice yesterday.”

      “Not everyone thought so.”

      “Bad day, Pastor?”

      “Definitely.”

      “Well,