“Really?”
“You tend to…let Hayden and Kane do their own thing.”
“Is that bad? Is there more I should be doing?”
Stacy patted Ginger’s arm. “No, not at all. In fact, I wish some of the other mothers would follow your lead. Some women have to tag along at every event, and quite frankly, that defeats the purpose of the organization.”
Ginger’s gaze returned to Hayden and Kane. “Can’t you point out the obvious to them?”
“No. We’ve always maintained an ‘open door’ policy for our members. Anyone can come to any event that involves their child.”
“This program has been good for Hayden.”
“Glad to hear it. And between us, consider yourself lucky you ended up with Kane McKay. There are lots of mothers requesting him as their son’s Big Buddy.”
There was that flare of unexpected feeling of jealousy. “Do you take that into consideration when pairing boys with mentors?”
Stacy shook her head. “Mostly we have to work around how many boys each Big Buddy can handle.
Some guys do well with three or four boys. Others only have time for one. Since we’re short on volunteers, our priority is not to overload the volunteers we have. The only solution is to put prospective Little Buddies on a waiting list.”
The question How many boys does Kane oversee? danced on the tip of Ginger’s tongue, but she knew Stacy couldn’t give her that information.
She squinted at the table. Another boy, younger than Hayden, sat next to Kane. Her gaze moved to the woman with her hands on the back of boy’s chair. She appeared to be chattering away to Kane.
“Excuse me,” Stacy said and drifted off.
Ginger headed toward her son and his mentor, deciding at the last second to cut behind the bank of tables behind Kane and Hayden. That way she could eavesdrop and neither would be the wiser.
“That’s great, son,” the stacked blonde cooed. “But maybe you oughta let Kane show you how to paint that stripe a little straighter.”
“You’re doin’ a fine job, Lock.”
“But—”
“Leave him be, Daphne,” Kane warned softly. “Maybe you oughta go get a glass of punch and let us finish up.”
“I’ll stay. I’m not really very thirsty.”
“Mom! I didn’t see you standing there,” Hayden said.
There went her great eavesdropping plan. Ginger smiled. “I didn’t want to interrupt you guys.”
“Come and look at this. Kane helped with the design, but isn’t it cool?”
Ginger angled over Hayden’s shoulder. “Very cool, very creative. I love the silver flames. What happens when you’re finished with it?”
“There’s a contest. First place gets a big blue ribbon.”
She was acutely aware of Kane’s gaze on the back of her head and of Daphne’s air of hostility. She glanced up and met the woman’s eyes.
Daphne sent her a tight smile. “You must be Hayden’s mom.”
“Yes, I’m Ginger Paulson. And you are?”
“Daphne Martin. My son Lock is also Buck’s Little Buddy.” She draped herself over her son’s chair, closer to Kane. “Maybe now that Hayden is almost finished, Buck can finally help you?”
Kane’s eyes never strayed to Daphne’s cle**age, which seemed to have its own gravitational pull toward Kane’s face. “Sure. What’s left to do?”
“That whole side is messy,” Lock said glumly. “Maybe I oughta just paint over it.”
“Only this section. The rest is good,” Kane offered.
Hayden rose up on his knees to watch. Kane glanced up and smiled at him. “Hang tight, sport. We’ll get that last stripe on in a second.”
“So Buck, are you gonna stick around for the after party?” Daphne asked.
“I usually do. Why?”
“I wondered if I could talk to you about a couple of things.” In private wasn’t said, but it was heavily implied.
Ginger curled her hands around the back of Hayden’s chair, instead of into fists. Unhappy with the urge to publicly remind Kane what they’d done in private last night.
Hayden said, “We’re staying for the after party, right Mom?”
Her gaze hooked Kane’s and his blank expression felt like a punch in the solar plexus. “I’m not sure.”
“Aw, please? That’s when we watch a movie and eat popcorn and stuff. Buck sneaks us candy too.”
“We always have such a good time with the boys, don’t we, Buck?” With saccharine sweetness, Daphne said, “If you have other plans, Hayden is welcome to sit with us. He usually does since he always seems to be here by himself.”
Ooh. Snap.
“Please?” Hayden pleaded.
Kane said not a word.
“We’ll see.”
“But Mom—”
“I said we’ll see. Excuse me.” She spun on her heel and dodged kids on her way to the punchbowl.
Her hand shook as she poured the creamy lime green goo into a plastic cup. She grabbed a brownie.
Ginger hadn’t attended many of these functions, believing, probably mistakenly, that Hayden needed guy time, whether it was with Kane or with the other boys in the program. Now as she looked around, she saw she was in the minority. Most mothers were here with their sons.
Did people think she didn’t show up because she didn’t care? Or she was too busy? Did they think she used the Little Buddies program as a daycare service?
Oh. God. What if people assumed she thought that her participation in the program was beneath her?
She’d run into that lawyers-are-idiots mindset many times. Or worse, lawyers-are-money-grubbing-charlatans. Or lawyers talk above everyone else. Even Kane had made a couple of cracks about not being on her intellectual level.
Normally she couldn’t give a rip what other people thought about her, but it bothered her to think they were feeling sorry for Hayden because of her actions—or lack thereof.
“If you have things to do today, Red, I can run Hayden home after the movie. No big deal.”
No big deal. Maybe not to Kane, but it was to her. Rather than snapping at him, Ginger stuffed the entire brownie in her mouth. She chewed. And chewed.
And chewed.
Dammit. It hadn’t looked that big on the napkin.
Kane stepped in front of her. “What’s wrong?”
She pointed to her mouth and chewed. Then she took a swig of the punch and about gagged. She hated lime sherbet and mixed with 7-Up? It tasted like pond scum. She swallowed the sticky lump, but she still had to clear her throat several times. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m taking Hayden with me.”