huge check.”
“I can’t have a party,” Kat said, looking suddenly panic-stricken. “I have so much work to do. I have to redo all my budgets and pick out office furniture—I have to hire an assistant. I have to go shopping.” She walked back into the house, muttering to herself about everything she had to do, Ethan and Samantha forgotten.
Samantha gave Ethan a puzzled look. “What’s a philanthor—philander— That word you said.”
“Philanthropist. It’s a person with a lot of money who wants to give it away to good causes. Mr. Breckenridge is that kind of man, and he’s decided StrongGirls is a good cause.”
“So he’s giving us money?”
“A lot of money.”
* * *
KAT WAS ALMOST ready for work one day, a week later, when Samantha came bounding into her room holding a fistful of red, white and blue ribbons. “Can you help me put these in my hair?”
“Of course. But we’ll have to hurry. I have to meet the Sunset StrongGirls and I need to get you over to your grandmother’s.”
Samantha gave her a funny look. “You’re doing StrongGirls on the Fourth of July?”
Kat’s mind, which had jumped ahead to the fifth task she had planned for the day, came to a screeching halt. “July fourth? Today?” She looked at the calendar from the tire shop she’d stuck up on her wall. Sure enough, it wasn’t just a weekday. She sank onto her bed. “I forgot all about it.”
“Mom, how could you forget? Today’s the barbecue.”
Oh, right. Fire Station 59 was hosting a barbecue for all the firefighters and their families. Though Kat and Samantha weren’t exactly anybody’s family, Priscilla, Tony and Jasmine had insisted they come.
“We’re counting on you to bring your famous brownies,” Tony had said the week before, when they’d talked about it.
“Samantha, you can go,” Kat had agreed at the time. “But I’ve got so much work to do. I think I’ll take advantage of the quiet house and work on my curriculum guides.”
She wasn’t sure, but she thought Ethan looked relieved that she’d decided not to attend the barbecue herself.
Now, Samantha wiggled so much that Kat had a hard time braiding the ribbons into her hair, but at last the task was finished.
“Mom, won’t you come to the barbecue?” Samantha wheedled. “You’re always working.”
“I know, but—”
“Mother-daughter time,” Samantha said.
Kat groaned. Her little girl sure knew which buttons to push. “I’ll go for a little while, okay?” She’d pay her respects to the guys, make sure Samantha was having fun, then sneak back home.
Kat was happy to change into a pair of denim shorts and a pink T-shirt that said Born to Shop, which she’d thought funny when she bought it because it was so not her.
It felt good to shed her professional persona, and she vowed not to think about StrongGirls for at least a couple of hours and focus on being a good mom and a good friend to the people who had taken care of her and protected her during her time of need. The past week, she’d been a woman obsessed, wanting to do everything at once. She wanted to show Mr. Breckenridge that his faith in her was not misplaced, that she was going to do everything she had promised to do and more, that she was going to do great, incredible things with the money he was giving her.
She’d talked to him on the phone seven times that first day, and then promised she would stop calling him as it gradually sank in that he really was giving her the money with no strings—totally trusting her to spend it wisely. And during their last conversation, he had admonished her to relax and have a nice holiday.
She couldn’t imagine how she’d forgotten. But now she was determined to have a good time.
Kat had brownies to bake. She’d promised. Her brownies weren’t anything special, made from a box, but somehow she’d gotten this reputation for making spectacular brownies. Even Priscilla, whose high-society mother was a renowned baker, had asked her for the recipe. If they only knew.
Kat and Sam set off for the fire station on foot, but they detoured to a convenience store to buy a couple of gallons of ice cream. For the first time in a very long time, Kat didn’t have to calculate the cost of everything and anguish over whether she could fit it into the budget. She just bought it.
Samantha was quivering with impatience, annoyed to miss even one minute of the party.
“You know,” Kat said as