Running Back (New York Leopards 2)

“Here, actually.” I pointed at the ceiling. “Third floor.”

Kate nodded. “Mike, isn’t that where you are?”

I glanced at Mike, who looked equally guilty. He cleared his throat. It was kind of charming to see a celebrity cowed by his mom. “Yeah. That’s me.”

Anna snorted.

“Hmm.” Kate paused to let a spoonful of stew cool. “I’d been hoping Michael was finally introducing us to a girlfriend.”

I started coughing on my salad.

“Mom!” Mike and Anna chorused. Lauren just let out a long, beleaguered sigh.

“What?” Kate didn’t sound embarrassed at all. “I was married by the time I was Lauren’s age. I don’t think it’s so unreasonable to want the same for my children.”

“Thank you, Mom, for pointing out your marital status at twenty-three again,” Lauren said.

“Natalie is just a friend, Mom,” Mike added. “We’ve barely even known each other a month.”

Kate raised her brow. “If you insist,” she said, in much the same way my brother Evan said the lady doth protest too much.

Something hit my shin. “Ow!”

A horrified expression crossed Lauren’s face. “Oh my God, I am so sorry, I was aiming for Mike.”

Mike leaned his head back and groaned.

Anna laughed.

Kate held out the breadbasket in my direction. “Would you like another piece, Natalie?”

“That sounds great,” I said, and took one.

Mike pulled himself up out of his embarrassment to look at his mom. “So what’s the schedule? Did you see Patrick’s wife?”

Kate stabbed more forcefully than necessary at a beet, sending it skittering across her plate. “We’ll swing by Friday morning. Tomorrow we need to go shopping.” She directed a pointed look at her youngest. “Anna, despite bringing a wardrobe entirely in black, doesn’t have a single appropriate outfit for the—what’s it called?” She turned to her eldest daughter.

“The month’s mind.” Lauren looked at me when she explained. “It’s like a month after someone dies, family and friends go to mass and have a meal to remember the person. We missed the funeral, so we’re going to it instead.”

“He’s already buried,” Anna said. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “It’s a matter of respect.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? How is it respectful to skip out on the funeral and then run around town?”

Kate frowned. “Anna. Do not swear.”

She slammed her fork down. “For Christ’s sake, Mom. What are you going to do about it? Ship me away from my friends and my boyfriend and my job for the summer? Oh, wait. That already happened.” She shoved back the chair and stomped out of the room, her combat boots heavy on the pale wooden floor.

Wow. I wished I’d been that ballsy at her age.

Kate turned to me. “I’m sorry. I wish I could say she wasn’t always like this...”

“Is she?” Mike sounded surprised. “She definitely had an attitude when she visited New York, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

Kate smiled flatly as she raised her drink again. “That, dear, is because you don’t live with her.”

Family politics were above my pay grade. With a smile and a flurry of pleasantries all around, I left them to their squabbling.