July 2006

Colleen Sione bent over the sink, rinsing the suds from a mismatched collection of plastic plates and cups. She’d washed the dishes by hand tonight, scrubbing longer and harder than needed in the hopes it would work out the frustration that had been building since that afternoon.

“Mommy, who was that?” Lena tugged on her skirt, still dressed in her ice cream-stained blue jumper. There was a smear of chocolate on the scalloped short sleeve of her white shirt. “Why was she at my party?”

Colleen sighed heavily, then shook her head. It was Lena’s ninth birthday, and it hadn’t taken long for the party to fall apart, once Kara had shown up. Why had Ryan even thought to invite her?

“I don’t know, honey,” she murmured. “I really don’t know.”

She set the last cup on the drying rack and wiped her hands on the towel tossed over her shoulder. The three-year-old triplets were standing on their chairs around the kitchen table, elbow-deep in the remains of Lena’s beach-themed cake. Eleven-year-old Michael was doing his best to pull them out of it, but from the clumps of crumb sand in his chin-length hair and the rainbow of icing streaking his glasses, it was not going well. She stifled a laugh, deciding it would be better to put her worries on hold for the night.

“Come on, you three,” she wiped bright yellow frosting from Kyle’s chin. He was the only one who’d gotten her blond hair, the others either lighter brown or Ryan’s dark brown. “I think a bath is in order.”

“No!” Zach said stubbornly, his big brown eyes bright with sugar rush. “I want cake!”

“My cake!” Kyle shouted, trying to squirm out of her grip. She clicked her tongue.

“You’ve all had more than enough sugar today,” she picked up Brianna, the remains of a fuchsia flower smeared across her pudgy tan cheeks. Her short, sandy brown pigtails had also been highlighted with it. “Time to wash off the leftovers.”

“You want me to clean this up, Mom?” Michael stood at the sink, wiping his face with a damp paper towel. He groaned in dismay when he tried to clean his glasses, the icing smears just getting worse. She nodded, unable to suppress a smile.

“I’ll come help when they’re settled,” she said, chuckling. She shifted her grip on Brianna and picked up Zach, Kyle climbing off his chair and trailing slightly behind as they headed upstairs.

Michael waited until he heard the bathroom door shut before he turned to Lena, keeping his voice low in case one of them tried to sneak back.

“Dad’s been gone for a while,” he pointed to the living room door. “Go see what he’s up to.”

Lena glanced at the doorway to the hall, then nodded, tiptoeing to the entryway. She ducked behind their great-aunt’s china hutch and peeked out, seeing Kara was standing too close to their dad. She was giggling, leaning and brushing against him.

“You didn’t tell me you had kids,” she sounded like she’d just woken up after the dentist. He shrugged.

“Didn’t think I needed to,” he sounded like he always did. “I have all those pictures of them in my office.”

“Really? I never noticed,” she ran her fingers through his curly short hair, then looked confused. “You don’t think she knows, do you?”

“Of course not,” he flashed a smile, one Lena had only seen him give their mother. “She’s too trusting.”

Kara shook her head, wobbling in her high heels on the new carpet.

“That’ll get her in trouble someday.”

“I know, but its good news for us,” he put an arm around her and gave her that smile again. He opened the door, letting in the warm, sticky night air. “May I walk you out?”

Kara giggled again, still wobbling.

“My, what a gentleman.”

He chuckled.

“You know me,” he winked at her. “I live to please!”