The Inconvenient Bride by Anne McAllister Page A

when?”
    â€œI’ll let you know,” she promised, starting to smile, happiness welling up inside her.
    As soon as she’d discussed it with Dominic.

CHAPTER FIVE
    S HE went back to the apartment and called Pam. “You and Frankie have to come visit.”
    â€œSierra?” Pam squeaked. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear from you. I was so worried when those movers came. It was so sudden. Of course I should have realized you’d move. I just didn’t think—”
    â€œNeither did I,” Sierra said cheerfully. “But that’s Dominic. He snaps his fingers, the world moves. Or at least I did. You won’t believe this place. You’ve got to see it. Frankie has to see it. Get a cab and come up.” She rattled off the address.
    â€œOh, we can’t intrude!” Pammie objected.
    â€œYou’re not intruding. You’re sharing the experience. Besides, you didn’t think that moving uptown would get me out of your life, did you? Come on. Grab a taxi and come. I’ll pay for it. We’ll have a picnic.”
    â€œFrankie can’t—”
    â€œInside,” Sierra assured her. “Frankie will love it. Trust me.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œPammie,” Sierra said sternly. “Don’t abandon me.” It was underhanded and she knew it, playing on Pam’s beholdenness. But it worked.
    Pam gave in. “We’ll take the bus.”
    Sierra would have disputed that, but she knew her friend already considered herself beholden for half a million dollars. Pammie would be determined not to add cab fare on top of it.
    â€œI’ll see you in an hour,” Sierra said.
    Dominic’s kitchen was as well-stocked as the average restaurant. Sierra had seen that when she was fixing herself breakfast. But she doubted Frankie would care, so she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cut oranges in half, found a bag of “homemade” chocolate-chip cookies in the cupboard, and set everything out on her old madras bedspread in front of the windows in the living room.
    â€œWow!” Frankie crowed when they arrived. “We are havin’ a picnic! See, Mom?” His normally pale cheeks flushed with enthusiasm as he looked around the apartment, then beamed at his mother. His eyes were alight with excitement. “This is great. It’s like my tree house,” he approved. “Way cool.”
    â€œWay cool,” Pammie agreed and, looking around, too, actually laughed in delight. “This is amazing.”
    â€œIsn’t it?” Sierra said. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
    After they finished, she showed them the rest of the apartment. Frankie loved the staircase. He examined it carefully, as if committing it to memory so he could reproduce it on his own designs once he got home. He liked the view and craned his neck to see how far up and down the park he could see. But most of his enthusiasm he saved for “the gear room” and the den next to it. He handled the roller blades and the ice skates and the baseball bats and pounded his fist into Dominic’s fielder’s glove.
    â€œNext year I’m gonna play baseball,” he told his mother and Sierra.
    â€œYes,” Pammie agreed.
    â€œAnd I’m gonna ice skate this winter.”
    â€œWell…”
    â€œI am,” Frankie said fervently. “When I get my new kidney. I’m gettin’ one,” he told Sierra. “My doc said.”
    â€œDid he?”
    Frankie nodded solemnly. “He said I’ll be better’n new then. Didn’t he?” He looked to his mother for confirmation.
    Pam nodded. “Yes.” She smiled at Sierra. “That’s what he said.”
    Sierra wanted to hear more of what the doctor said, but she didn’t think Frankie needed to be part of the whole discussion, so she poked through Dominic’s collection of videotapes.
    â€œRaiders of the Lost Ark?” She plucked