“Why can’t you?” Raze looked mystified.
“The same reason I was in such a bind when my car broke down,” Luci told him. “Money. It’s not easy for a single mom to make it alone, you know?”
Raze frowned.
“I don’t understand why your government doesn’t offer you more support. On the Kindred Mother Ship, all females are compensated for raising young ones. A female can work if she wants—as much as she wants—and free childcare is available for that purpose. But if she would rather stay home, she will still get plenty of credit to survive and take care of herself and her family.”
Luci sighed longingly.
“Dios, I wish! Unfortunately that’s not the way it works here. I get a little help with food but that’s about it.” She shrugged.
“That isn’t right!” Raze exclaimed. “Someone ought to be taking care of you and your young ones.”
Luci bristled a little.
“I’m taking care of us,” she pointed out, a bit stiffly. “It’s not easy, but we manage. My mom helps and the kids are happy.”
“Of course they are. Forgive me,” Raze said formally. “I wasn’t implying you’re not good at taking care of your family. I just meant, well…it’s not the Kindred way for a female to have to be alone and raise her young ones all by herself with no male to help.”
“I have my Mom,” Luci pointed out. “She’s a lot more dependable with my kids than my ex ever was. And she doesn’t yell at them, either,” she added, before she could stop herself.
Raze’s frowned deepened.
“Your ex-mate shouted at your young ones?”
“Tony…had a very hot temper.” Luci wished she hadn’t brought it up. It made her feel like a bad mom to have stayed with her ex as long as she had. “Look, you have to let me thank you for fixing my car,” she said, hoping to change the subject. “How about having dinner with me and the kids tonight? I’ll cook you something special.”
The big Kindred’s face lit up.
“I’d like that very much, Lucia,” he rumbled. “But you have to let me buy the food—you just cook it.”
Luci put a hand on her hip.
“Look, I know I just told you money is a problem, but I can manage the groceries!”
“I’m sure you can,” Raze said mildly. “If you were cooking for a human male. But I have a big appetite. So please, let me buy the food and you just prepare it.”
“Well…” Luci bit her lip, practicality warring with pride.
It was true that her food budget was stretched to the breaking point, but she hated to seem like a charity case. It was just so hard to make ends meet when she had three kids to feed and only herself to depend on! She could never take a sick day or any time off, even though Dr. Canody would have given it to her—she simply couldn’t afford it. Dios, sometimes she just got so tired of being poor.
“Please, Lucia.” The big Kindred’s voice was a soft rumble. “Allow me to buy the food for the meal you’re going to make. It’s the custom of my people for the male to provide for a female if he can.”
“Well…”
Luci felt her stubbornness melting under that sexy, mismatched gaze of his. What was it about the big Kindred that drew her so strongly? Was it just that he was the first man she’d looked at since her divorce? Or the fact that he was so kind and gentle and patient—both with the tiny kittens and with her kids? She didn’t know, but she did know she wanted to spend more time with him.
“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll give you a grocery list and you can pick the things up on the way home. I’ll take the kittens with me,” she added. “That way you don’t have to bring them into the store with you.”
She was curious to see how the big Kindred would handle this arrangement. Tony had always used to fly into a rage if she asked him to do any of what he called “women’s work.” Once in a very great while he might run to the store for a gallon of milk or some bread if they were all out but he always grumbled about it and expected to be praised to the skies for his heroic effort afterwards.
It was the same with laundry or dishes or any of the other domestic chores her ex had considered himself above doing. Tony absolutely wouldn’t help in any way. “Not my job, babe,” he would always tell Luci if she asked him to change a diaper or take out the garbage. “I bring home the bacon and you cook it—that’s how it goes.”
Even after Luci had finished the two year Vet Tech course at the local community college—which she never could have done if her mom hadn’t been able to watch the kids—and started working part time while the kids were in school, Tony still wouldn’t lift a finger around the house.