Free Weakest Lynx by Fiona Quinn Page B

in this neighborhood. I mean we wave at each other, and everything, but that’s about it.”
    I didn’t say anything, just cozied Ruby closer to me. After a few minutes, Sarah leaned forward to catch my eye, “You seem to have a different way of doing things. You’ve reached out to everyone since you got here. Where are you from originally?”
    “Not far. I’m from DC, too.” I leaned my head back against the post. “I grew up in a small apartment building. We were twenty families in all, and we definitely had the ‘it-takes-a-village’ mentality. We were always in each other’s lives and apartments—just a big extended family.” I smiled. “Well, mostly. A few apartments preferred to keep to themselves.”
    “That sounds ideal.”
    I laughed. “Until I did something naughty as a child, and then I had a dozen moms instead of just my one.”
    The car driving by beeped then parked down the street. Sarah pointed at the woman climbing out. “Have you met Alice and Andy yet?”
    I shook my head and jostled Ruby a little to ease her back to sleep after the horn had startled her.
    “They’re coming over for spaghetti tomorrow night. We wanted to watch a couple of videos. Why don’t you come and get to know them?”
    “Tomorrow? Oh, I’d like to, but I can’t. I have Rescue Squad duty.” Beetle whined and inched her nose closer to the baby, her nostrils working out the scent. I reached over and scratched under her whiskery chin.
    “You’re an EMT? How’d you get involved in that?”
    “My mom. She was sick for a long time. Toward the end, I had to call 911 a lot. I thought it might be good to know what the EMTs did to help her, maybe get some equipment on hand to make Mom feel better—well, to make me feel better.” I pushed Beetle back; her nose was getting too curious. “I checked into it, and the Rescue Squad said they’d pay for my training and certification if I volunteered for them for two years. Sounded like a deal to me, so I signed on.”
    “Do you like going out on calls?” she asked.
    I paused for a minute. Did I like it? What a curious question. I didn’t volunteer because I liked it—I did it because people needed help. “It’s been a good thing.” I said.
    Sarah tipped her head to the side. “Can I ask how old you are? You look like a teenager.”
    “I turned twenty March third.”
    “That’s too young. I mean, with your story, I would say you had to be at least twenty-five.” Sarah squinted. “It seems unreasonable that you’ve accomplished what you have at such an early age.” She drew her brows together and offered me a contrite frown. “I hope you don’t mind my saying that.”
    “That’s all right. I homeschooled.” I waved at Justin getting into his car across the way. “If I’m talking to another homeschooler, then my bag of tricks is no big deal. I think it’s all about, you know, where a family puts their focus. Growing up, I never had to study for an exam or write a term paper. I spent my time learning other things in other ways.”
    She nodded. “What a cool way to grow up.”
    I smiled ruefully. “Yeah. Though you’re right, sometimes I feel like I’m trying to bake myself under the broiler.”
    Sarah laughed softly. “In my limited, and quite frankly very bad, culinary experience, trying to cook things that way rarely turns out well.”
    “It ends up raw on the inside and burned on the outside? Yeah. That’s about how I feel. I’m hoping things will calm down. I just want to get my house fixed for when Angel comes home, so we have nice, safe place to start out our lives together.”
    Sarah nodded. A little world-weariness of her own edged around her eyes. We sat quietly together, watching the cars drive slowly down the street. After some time, Sarah rubbed her hands on her thighs and stood.
    “I guess I’d better get back and make sure my son hasn’t set the dog on fire. We’ll do the dinner thing another time, when Andy’s in town, and you