Free Everything but the Baby (Harlequin Superromance) by Kathleen O`Brien Page B

dinner and then to get ice cream.”
    That blew Mark’s mental picture of Allison’s afternoon. If she’d carried out her search-and-seduce strategy and still had time for all that, Lincoln must have surrendered in a big hurry.
    He was suddenly eager to hear everything, but no one answered when he rapped on the door to her room. He rapped a second time, a little louder, in case she was in the shower.
    â€œShe’s not in there,” a small voice behind him said.
    He turned. It was one of the twins—the one with the backpack, although he couldn’t remember whether it was Fiona or Flannery. Her hair was tangled, and her green eyes were rimmed in red, as if she might have been crying.
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œYeah. She went out with dad and Grampa. Everybody is out there.” Her voice quavered. “Everybody but me.”
    Mark looked down the hall, hoping for rescue. Even happy eight-year-olds were outside his area of expertise. Weepy ones…forget it.
    Unfortunately, the hall was empty.
    â€œWell, then maybe we should go out there, too.” Heangled himself toward the staircase, even though the elevator was just a few feet away. He could take on ruthless CEOs and rabid investigative reporters without breaking a sweat, but the idea of getting stuck in a four-by-four box with a bawling kid was enough to give him hives.
    He put his hand on the door to the stair. “Shall we?”
    Biting her lips together, she shook her head mutely. Two glassy tears as fat as marbles rolled down her cheeks.
    Oh, man. He cast one longing look at the stairway to freedom, then came back to the little girl. “Why not? It’ll be fun. I hear music.”
    More head shaking. “I can’t.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI hate Fannie.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œShe’s a jerk. She thinks she owns Allison. She won’t let anyone else even talk to her. And she told her a big lie about my backpack.”
    He tugged on his earlobe and tried not to laugh. It was amazing. A big lie about a backpack? Apparently even tiny females loved drama and would cook it up out of nothing but smoke and air.
    â€œWhat did she say?”
    â€œShe said my backpack is full of dead lizards and snake snot.”
    He couldn’t help himself—the laugh was out, echoing down the hall before he realized it. Even after only one day here, Mark knew that Fiona firmly refused to show anyone the contents of her belovedbackpack. So as a smear campaign, Flannery’s accusation was damned creative. When she got about ten years older, she might have a future in politics.
    â€œIt’s not funny.” Fiona tucked her thumbs under the straps of her backpack and shifted its weight on her bony shoulders. “It got me in a lot of trouble.”
    â€œHow did her comment get you in trouble?”
    â€œWell, I was mad, so I hit her with my backpack, and Mom saw me.” Her lip trembled. “Now I’m not allowed to go downstairs at all tonight, not even to be with Allison.”
    Mark thought it over. “That seems a little unfair. I mean, if all you have in there is snake snot, how much could it possibly hurt?”
    Finally, Fiona smiled. One corner of her mouth turned up, and a dimple appeared right in the middle of a cluster of freckles. She sniffed back the tears she’d been about to shed and looked Mark over with a curiously adult and appraising look.
    â€œOkay, I’ll show you where Allison is,” she said as if he’d passed some kind of test. “Come on.”
    She walked down the hall, away from the elevators, toward the end of the wing that overlooked the water. Mark followed.
    â€œSee?” She stubbed her forefinger into the windowpane. “That’s Allison, right at the edge of the patio, under the last palm tree. She’s all alone. I guess she finally got rid of Fannie.”
    Mark’s eyes took a minute to adjust. The dusk had turned to