Her Sexiest Mistake

up late tonight, I'll kill her,' when Mike and Hope walked in.

Mike arched a brow.

Hope just stared.

Recovering quickly, Mia tossed Kevin half her bagel and commanded Hope to hurry, as if they hadn't just been going at it against the refrigerator.

Kevin took much longer to recover. Like all day…

***

On the third morning, Mia was feeling desperate, and shoved Kevin into the bathroom. 'This is a ridiculous,' she whispered. 'How do married people ever have sex once they have kids? I can't wait any longer.' She lifted her skirt.

No panties.

With a rough groan, he reached for her, but Mike banged on the door.

Mia thunked her head back against the shower. 'I'm going to cry,' she whispered. 'I mean it.'

But a few minutes later, in the kitchen, she gave him a whole bagel. Toasted and jellied.

Progress.

'You made this for me?' Kevin murmured, surprised.

'Maybe I'm staking my claim.' Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him good-bye.

'Ew,' Hope said, coming into the room, wrinkling her nose but looking secretly pleased. 'Gross. Old people making out.'

Old people wanting more than that, Kevin thought.

***

Late the next night, when Kevin had resigned himself to the fact that Mia was sabotaging their nights on purpose because she was freaked about 'living' together, he heard someone in the hallway.

It was Mike, who smirked. Still not getting laid?

Kevin sighed.

Sucks for you, Mike signed, clearly dressed for going out.

Where are you off to?

To get what you can't.

With Tess?

Mike's smile fell, and he shook his head.

You saw her just last night. What happened?

During… an inopportune moment, Linda paged me. And then Shelly. They wanted me to go out with them.

Kevin shook his head. Demanding harem you have there.

Hey, I haven't seen any of them since I met Tess. But she doesn't know that.

And the calls look damning.

Mike nodded, a new expression on his face: shame. It happened last week, too. She read one of the texts. It said Come fuck me, big guy.

Ouch.

Mike let out an agreeing sound. She dumped me. She cried when she did it, too. Looking destroyed, he shrugged. So I guess I'm going out with the gang.

Why don't you stick around here instead? Kevin signed casually, trying to keep him from the need to go self-destruct. I can put in a movie-

Mike shook his head and brushed past him.

A moment later, the front door shut.

With a sigh, Kevin went to the kitchen, hoping his brother kept his brain turned on. He heard the pad of the bare feet a few seconds before Hope poked her head in. She wore a black T-shirt that fell to her knees and her hair in a ponytail. No makeup at all. She looked about twelve, and incredibly sweet. 'Hey.' He kicked out a chair. 'You too old for milk and cookies?'

'Never.'

He started to get up, but she waved him down and helped herself, serving him as well. He smiled and thanked her, and then waited.

It didn't take long.

'So this relationship thing…' She didn't look at him but into her milk as if it held the world's secrets. 'How do you know when it's real?'

'What kind of relationship are we talking about?'

'There's different kinds?'

'Sure, there's the friendship relationship, the student/teacher relationship, the love relationship-'

'That kind.'

'Ah.' He nodded. 'Well… there's the I-gotta-have-you-or-life-is-over love. That's usually a teenage thing, and lasts, oh, about a week.'

She snorted and dipped her cookie in the milk.

'And then there's the I-love-you-if-you-change-into-the-person-I-really-want love. That usually doesn't last much longer than the teenage kind.' He knew. He'd been there with Beth.

Another snort came from Hope as she shoved the cookie in her mouth, and he smiled. 'And then there's the real thing. The I-can't-eat-can't-sleep love that snags you by the heart and won't let go. Only problem is, it's almost always fatal.'

She went very still, then swallowed. 'When you spell it out, it's not really that hard to tell the difference at all, is it?'

'Are we talking about Adam?'

She looked away. 'Actually… I was thinking about Aunt Mia. If she fell in love, the real kind, maybe she'd want kids. Maybe she'd want me to stay. And, you know, help.'

God, she was killing him. 'She'd be lucky to have you, Hope.'

She played with another cookie for a minute. 'Think she'd want to keep me?'

How to tell her Mia didn't want to 'keep' anybody. 'Your aunt has some things to work out in the keeping department,' he said gently.

'And we can't work them out for her?'

'No, unfortunately.'