Page 3 of A Little Christmas Wish

Please don’t let Zippy have to punch another child in the nose.

“Have a good day, honey,” Betsy told her as Ink stood and helped her up.

They watched Zippy walk into the school. Betsy leaned against Ink, putting her hand in his.

“She’ll be fine, Button,” Ink told her, kissing the side of her head.

“I’m going to get a call from the principal if she punches another child.” Betsy rubbed at her tummy. Maybe she was getting an ulcer. “Perhaps we should have waited until after the Christmas break to enroll her. I mean, there’s only five or six weeks left.” She should really find out exactly how many weeks there were. That was something a foster mom should know.

Ink turned her toward him, cupping her face between his hands. “Zippy will be just fine. She wanted to go to school. Sheneeds a routine and normalcy and so do you. And if there are any problems, I will handle them. Okay?”

She nodded.

“Now, we should probably stop loitering outside a school after the bell has rung,” he said with a smile. “Or they might call the cops on us.”

“Good call,” she said.

Ink opened the door to his truck and helped her in before doing up her seatbelt.

But Betsy still couldn’t help worrying as they pulled away onto the street and headed home.

“I can hear you thinking from here, Button,” Ink said as he reached over to squeeze her thigh. “Didn’t you believe me when I said I’d take care of everything?”

“I just . . . what if I’m not a good mother?” she blurted out. “I didn’t have the best role model, after all.”

“Baby, you’re already a great mother. What are you talking about? Look what you’ve done with the twins.”

“Done with the twins? One of them is about to blow up a science lab and the other one is an evil genius who will likely take over the world or build the first colony on Mars and rule it as a dictator. And let’s face it, they basically take care of themselves. In fact, most of the time I feel like they look after me.”

Ink pulled his truck over before turning to take her face in his hands once more. “Breathe, Button. Everything is fine. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

Urgh.

What was wrong with her?

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about,” he replied firmly. “But I don’t like to see you worrying. Let me do the worrying. I have big shoulders. See? And lots of muscles.” He flexed his biceps and she giggled.

“Hey, why are you laughing? You’re not laughing at Martha and Arthur, are you?”

“I wasn’t. I was laughing at you. But now that I’ve heard what your biceps are called? Yeah, I’m laughing at them, too.”

Martha and Arthur? Those were terrible names.

“So naughty!” He reached over and tickled her until her laughter filled the truck.

“Daddy! Daddy, stop!”

He drew back and she tried to catch her breath, straightening her clothes. She’d dressed carefully for today in case she ended up going into the school with Zippy. She wanted to look nice for her teacher. So she was in a black pencil skirt and a white, billowy blouse. And her blonde hair was slicked back.

Not that she minded Ink messing her up. Sometimes, she needed to be reminded that it was okay to have fun.

Leaning over, he grasped hold of her chin and kissed her lightly. “You are beautiful. Inside and out. Always.”

That knot of anxiety in her tummy started to unravel.

“And you are an amazing mom. The fact that you’re so concerned about failing tells me how amazing you are. You worry about these kids, look after them, love them. And they are lucky to have you. Including Zippy.”

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