As if Corinne had never said thank you or done what she could to help around the house, with the cooking, with her son. As if all she ever did was take and never give back. She closed her eyes for a couple of breaths until she had her temper under control again. “Have you heard about the fundraiser Norah Burke has organized for the women’s shelter? Dancing With Wishful?”
“Saw something about it in the paper this morning. Why? Were you wanting to go?”
“Well, no. Mama Pearl has asked me to represent the diner as one of the dancers. It wasn’t the original plan, but she had a fall at work today and sprained her ankle pretty badly.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“I’m going to need someone to watch Kurt in the evenings while I rehearse.”
“Rehearse,” Marianne repeated, arching a skeptical brow.
“It’ll probably only be for the first week,” she rushed to add. “I expect we’ll end up cut after the first round.” Even if they were technically perfect, and even if Tucker was a town favorite, it wouldn’t be enough to override the stigma that stuck to her like stink on a skunk.
Her mother heaved another of those over-dramatic sighs. “I just don’t know, Corinne. I’m already doing so much.”
“I know. I know, Mama, and I’m so grateful. I wouldn’t have chosen this on my own. But Mama Pearl asked, and she’s been good to me since I came back. I don’t want to let her down.”
“And who, exactly, is your partner? That Brody Jensen you wasted all those years chasing after? Because he’s getting married.”
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Shame heated Corinne’s cheeks. “Yes, Mama, I know Brody’s getting married.” She’d been the one to give him the verbal ass kicking he needed to fix things with Tyler when he’d messed up their second chance. “I’m dancing with Tucker McGee.”
“Tucker McGee,” Marianne drawled. The speculative gleam in her eye had Corinne wanting to take a step back. “That’d be the one who took Kurt to play basketball this morning. Boy’s been chattering about it like a magpie since I picked him up.”
“He was helping out so I could get my application in at the hospital ahead of the crowd. The dancing is just business,” she warned.
“Might start that way. Doesn’t mean it has to finish that way.”
“There’s nothing between me and Tucker, Mama.”
“Won’t be with that attitude.”
For the love of— She wasn’t in this for a man. And she certainly wasn’t going to use one of the few people who’d been kind to her since she came back. But it wasn’t worth the fight to argue about it.
“Are you willing to watch Kurt so I can rehearse for the competition?”
“I expect the boy and I can keep ourselves occupied. It’s for a good cause, after all.”
“Thank you, Mama.” But as she headed upstairs to change clothes, Corinne had the sense that the fundraiser wasn’t the cause her mother was talking about.
Chapter 5
“Thanks for springing me,” Piper said. “I swear, since he found out I was pregnant, Myles has about tried to wrap me in cotton and stuff me in a bubble. I had to practically promise to call every five minutes and keep my locater app running on my phone to get him to go on in to the paper to deal with some emergency and let me come out tonight.”
Tucker looked over at the now visible baby bump, made more pronounced by the weight she’d dropped the last few months. “You can’t blame the guy. You’ve barely kept any solid food down for the past four months. He’s just worried about you. We all have been.”
“I’m fine. And I’m stir crazy. Which is why Tyler and Brody are having this cookout. Bless them. Myles is terrified I’ll catch something to make me even sicker if I’m out in public.”
“He does remember you work at a doctor’s office, right?”
“That’s what I said. Let it not be said that the new father is in any way, shape, or form rational.” But there was amusement in her tone.
“You’re happy,” Tucker observed.
Piper folded her hands over her belly and gave a blissful sigh. “I am. This is not where I expected to be six months ago, but it’s so much better.”
“Even with the preggo nausea?”