Inspire by Cora Carmack Page B

press my forehead into the wall between the two rooms. This is all going so wrong, and I don't know how to make it right. What the hell is wrong with me?
    I don't hear Lennox return until she says from just over my shoulder. “Hate shopping that much, do you?”
    “No, it's not … it's nothing.”
    She surveys me for a moment; then her eyes flick to the curtain separating me from Kalli. She presses her lips together in contemplation. Then Gwen comes running out with her chosen dress in her hand.
    “That's the one?” Lennox asks.
    Gwen's nod is vigorous.
    “You don't want to try on any of the rest?”
    She shakes her head. “Kalli says this one is special.”
    Lennox's eyes shoot back to me.
    “Okay then. Let's get you two checked out.”
    I don't want to go to the front register, but I don't have much of a choice. Lennox is walking away with Gwen's dress, and I'd look a little crazy waiting outside Kalli's dressing room just so I could talk to her again. So with one final glance at the closed curtain, I head toward the front.
    While Lennox rings us up, she asks, “So. Do you know Kalli?”
    “We've met before. But I don’t think I’d say I know her.”
    Unless knowing the way she tastes counts. And the way her back arches when she comes. The little panting breaths she makes when she’s almost there. I know those things. Fat lot of good it has done me today.
    “Tell me about it. Girl has more secrets than Lost . She's hard to pin down.”
    So it isn't just me then.
    Lennox moves to slip a plastic garment bag over Gwen's dress and says casually, “You should come to Christmas at my place.”
    “Uh. I'm sorry. What?”
    “Not like … alone or anything. Jesus, I'm not crazy. I'm having an Orphan Christmas for all the people who can't afford or don't want to visit family. Kalli will be there.”
    “Really?”
    She nods with a knowing smile. “Took me days of prodding to get her to agree to come.”
    I’m tempted. So damn tempted.
    “I can’t. I’ve got family stuff.”
    “So come after. We’re doing a big pot luck dinner, and then we’ll probably stay up late drinking and playing games and watching terrible holiday-themed movies.”
    “Yeah?”
    In answer, she prints out some extra receipt paper from the register, grabs a pen a writes down her address. We exchange numbers, too. “In case you have any issues,” she says.
    She holds the paper out to me, and I take it. “Are you going to tell Kalli I’m coming?”
    She scoffs. “Yeah, right. I do know one thing about that girl, and it’s that she goes out of her way not to let anyone too close. And I’m just about ready to strangle her for it. But I think you’re probably a more preferable option.”
    “So, you’re helping me? You don’t even know me.”
    She shrugs. “I don’t see a lot of dudes come here with little kids. And of the ones that do, there are two kinds. The ones who would give anything to be somewhere else. And the ones who are here because they would give anything for their little girl.”
    “She’s not mine,” I remind her.
    “Still applies. Even more so considering you’re her brother. I have a brother. A good brother, but I guarantee he would never take me shopping.”
    I want to tell her that I’m not nearly as good as she’s making me out to be. I might be here with Gwen now, but I was pretty damn absent for the first few years of her life. But I’m selfish enough to want her to like me, so that maybe I’ll have an ally in whatever this thing with Kalli is.
    Realizing I still haven’t introduced myself to her, I hold out my hand over the counter and say, “Wilder Bell.”
    She takes it, giving my hand a surprisingly firm shake before adding, “Lennox Hastings. Does this mean I’ll be seeing you for Christmas?”
    “Yeah. I think you will.” 
     

Chapter Eleven
    Mom's eyes meet mine from her perch on the couch. It's the first time I've seen her out of scrubs in weeks. Mom had been a nurse for nearly a