Her Sexiest Mistake

'Tell her,' Kevin said, nudging her, though doing so with a clear gentleness. He seemed so tall and big next to her, almost formidable, a definite contrast to the sexy lover and basketball player Mia had already seen.

The girl looked up at him, silently imploring.

'Tell her,' Kevin said again in that same infinitely patient but inexorable tone.

He had a voice on him-Mia would give him that-the kind that could coax the most saintly to sin, the law-abiding to throw caution to the wind, and a woman to forget her inhibitions. She thought of him teaching, talking to teenagers, and she had to admit, he could probably sell the most boring textbook ever written.

It certainly had sold her last night. One naughty, wicked word from those lips to her ears and she'd been gone.

The girl reacted by sidling slightly closer to him as she looked at Mia. 'Hope,' she whispered.

Mia leaned in. 'You hope what?'

A glare was her only answer.

'Her name is Hope,' Kevin clarified.

And Mia froze. 'Hope… Appleby?'

Her answer was the universal gaze teenagers all over the country had perfected, the one which said Fuck off and die, but before you do, please take care of me.

Oh, my God. Hope.

Sugar's daughter.

To Mia's shame, she'd never met her. Sugar had gotten pregnant the night of that long ago BBQ, and since Mia had never been back…

Another shame, but though she hadn't planted herself there physically, she had done her best with letters and phone calls, not that that was enough.

Still, Mia had tried, sending checks, too, money that had surely gone toward barbeque wardrobes and tacky furnishings for the trailer, at least until she died five years ago in a car accident.

After that, Mia still sent money, but Sugar hadn't been as easy to keep in touch with. As she wasn't much of a letter writer, either-and let's face it, there hadn't ever been much love between them-years had gone by without a word or thank-you. The only way Mia even knew Sugar received the money Mia sent was that the checks had always been immediately cashed.

Mia had done her best not to care, sending cards and checks directly to Hope as well, even though she'd never received an acknowledgement.

If asked, Mia would have said she hadn't needed or wanted one. But to see the kid here, without warning… 'My God. What's going on?'

Another jerk of the shoulder.

Lost, Mia looked at Kevin. He shrugged, too.

Damn, she wished she'd downed her wine. She wanted to now but felt a little self-conscious doing so in front of a minor. 'Hope.' Mia struggled with the words. Funny, that. She was known for being good in an emergency, for always knowing what to do or say, but for the first time in her life she felt clueless. 'What are you doing here?'

Hope kicked the toe of her black-soled boot against the hardwood floor, leaving a dark scuff mark. With the smoothness of one well used to covering her tracks, she stepped on it. 'I thought I'd, you know, come see LA.' Her voice was soft, and thick with a Southern drawl.

Mia did not so much as glance at Kevin. She'd told no one where she was from, not even Tess, and that wouldn't change now. 'Is Sugar with you?'

'No.'

'Did you fly?'

'No.'

'Did you take the train?'

'No.'

Kevin sighed and nudged Hope again. 'Listen, you got lucky. You could have pulled your little B &E session on a cop's house. Or one with a guy who might have been extremely happy to find a young girl in his bedroom. Do you know what I'm saying?'

'Yeah. You don't want to do me.'

Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose. 'I'm a teacher,' he said. 'A high school teacher. That means that I supposedly have a boatload of patience, but that's a complete crock. What I have, Hope, is an unfortunate understanding of how your mind works. We're not the bad guys here.'

She said nothing, but scuffed the wood again with another kick of her foot.

Mia winced and eyed her perfect wood floor.

'Talk to us, Hope,' Kevin said.

'I didn't mean to break into your house.' She spoke directly to her boots. 'And I wasn't stealing nothing, I swear it.'

'I didn't say you were,' Kevin said. 'I said you were snooping.'

'I was looking around. I wanted to see her stuff.'

'Whose? Mia's?' He asked this in a much more patient tone than Mia could have come up with. She wanted answers, and she wanted them now, but Kevin wasn't rushing anything. In his eyes was an understanding of Hope, one that said he'd been there.

Hope nodded. Yes, she'd thought she was looking at Mia's stuff.

Mia straightened, momentarily forgetting she stood there in nothing but her robe, gripping a glass of wine. 'So why were you in Kevin's house?'

'Because I mixed up the address.'

'Keep talking,' Kevin said.

'I didn't know anything about her, okay?' Hope lifted her face, bright now with embarrassment. 'I wanted to see what she was like, see if I was going to want to stay, and I messed up the two and five of the address.'

'So you've never been to your aunt's place?'

Mia's stomach tightened as Hope shook her head.

Kevin was nodding as if he understood this crazy situation perfectly. 'So you were looking in my drawers, thinking you had Mia's things in front of you?'

'Yes.' Again she rolled her lips together, as if fighting with herself. 'I'm sorry,' she said, the words seeming to cost her. 'I didn't mean to invade your privacy.'

'I got that.'

Hope looked at him. Her face was still mostly covered with her long, streaky black hair, but she actually made eye contact.

He smiled approvingly.

She didn't smile back, but she kept her head up.

'Now tell us what you're doing here all alone.'

She kicked at the wood floor again, and Mia did her best to not yell Stop!

'I wanted to come to LA like Aunt Apple did,' Hope said. 'I wanted to get rich and live like this.'

'Aunt Apple,' Kevin repeated pointedly and looked at Mia, who suddenly wished she'd downed the entire bottle of wine.

'Yeah. I mean, look at this place,' Hope said, gesturing with a jerk of her shoulder at the foyer into the large, clean, beautifully decorated living room.

Mia knew exactly what it looked like to her: a mansion.

'I want to live like this,' Hope whispered in awe.

Mia went to say that it took a hell of a lot more than want, but Kevin shot her a warning glance and she slowly closed her mouth. She hated that he was running this show but admitted to herself she was so far out of her league