The Secretary Gets Her Man. Mindy Neff

Joe and trying her best to hide the trembling in her hands, she turned and wove her way through the tables.

      Joe Colter was definitely going to be a distraction while she was here.

      When she got to her friends’ table, she simply grinned, nodded and sat down to eat. Pam was mopping up spilled coke, Janelle was trying and failing to tie a suitable bow in her daughter’s hair, and Kelly was at war with her sons. Penny was thoroughly entertained.

      “Please, mommy. I want to do the Thunder Rider,” ten-year-old Justin complained.

      “Me, too,” Kevin said, putting his hands on his hips.

      Penny licked her fingers and gave the little boy a wink. “Tough guy.”

      “We already talked about this, boys,” Kelly said. “No big rides tonight. Daddy’s not coming until later and there’s nobody to go with you. Besides, you’ve just eaten. You’ll get sick.”

      “No we won’t.”

      “Yeah, Mom,” Penny butted in. “No, we won’t.”

      Kelly glared at her. “Real cute, girlfriend.”

      “Do you object to the ride for safety reasons, or do you just not want the boys to go alone?”

      “The rides are safe—they’ve ridden them every single night for the past three nights. I just don’t like them to go alone.”

      “Then, I’ll take them.”

      “You just ate half a plate of barbecue.”

      “So?”

      “Yeah, so?” Justin and Kevin chimed in.

      “Fine,” Kelly said. “It’s your stomach and whiplash.”

      Penny grinned. “My stomach’s cast iron. Who’s going on Thunder Rider?”

      A chorus of “me” sounded.

      AS IT TURNED OUT, Penny ended up with Kelly’s two boys, Justin and Kevin, and one of Pam’s sons, Kyle. Steven was too young, Pam said, and earned herself a four-year-old with heartbroken tears tracking down his face.

      “Honestly, Steven,” Pam admonished. “We’ve been through this every night.”

      “But I’m older tonight.”

      “Kid’s got a point,” Penny said only loud enough for Pam to hear. She knelt down in front of little Steven. “How are you at target practice, buddy?”

      He sniffed and shrugged, but his round blue eyes brightened.

      “Tell you what. Soon as we get back, I’ll take you over to the shoot-’em-up booth and we’ll win the biggest prize they’ve got. Okay?”

      “’Kay.” Steven shot his brother and friends a “so there” look and everyone ended up happy.

      “What about you, Lindsey?” Penny asked. “Want to come?”

      “I’ll stay with Steven,” she said quietly. Shyly. Something about this child spoke to Penny. Lindsey reminded Penny a lot of herself at that age. Quiet and withdrawn.

      Don’t act ugly, Penny, or your crazy mother will act even uglier. And then what, huh? Everyone will know just what hideous stock you come from.

      She shook off the memory, passed a hand over Lindsey’s straight-as-a-board hair. “Promise to ride on the Ferris wheel with me? We can take Steven on that one, what do you say?”

      Lindsey’s eyes came instantly alive, then she composed herself quickly. “Yes, ma’am. I’d like that.”

      Penny met Janelle’s gaze. Sadness was there, a parent’s heartache when she knew the cause of hurt and was trying her best to fix it, but couldn’t seem to make a lot of headway.

      “She’ll snap out of it,” Penny said to Janelle as she walked past. “Though I could clobber you for teaching her such good manners. I hate being called ma’am. Come on guys.”

      After a turn on the Octopus, the Tilt-a-Whirl and two passes on Thunder Rider, Penny rendezvoused with Lindsey and Steven for the promised ride on the Ferris wheel and trip to the shooting booth. The kids were treating her like a favored aunt they’d known all their lives and Penny was having a ball.

      Now, watching them as their energy wound down and as her girlfriends danced with their husbands who’d finally shown up, Penny felt something inside her crack with longing. She was thirty-four years old and the ticking of her biological clock was nearly deafening.