Page 11 of Get A Fix

She was laughing now. “I knew it.”

“Okay, so let’s do this. You get yourself rebalanced there under your mountain-climbing gear,” I quipped, walking around her and picking up Taylor, “and I’ll take the baby.”

“But you have your garment bag too and⁠—”

“Notice the strap on said bag hanging quite nicely off my shoulder.”

“But your backpack is⁠—”

“Much like yours, able to go over both shoulders.”

She huffed out a breath. “Okay.”

Once we were moving toward baggage claim, she asked if I was all right.

“Why?”

“Taylor’s heavy.”

“He’s really not,” I assured her. “I suspect he gets heavy with this sherpa bag on your back, rolling the biggest suitcase I’ve ever seen in my life—really, I had no idea they made them that big—and having to stop for a toddler.”

Deep sigh then, like finally, she was decompressing a bit.

“So seriously, what’s with this backpack? Are you scaling Everest later?”

“There’s toys in it, plus extras of everything, and of course the baby bag I normally carry.”

“Oh thank God, I was afraid you went to Target like this.”

She found that hysterical and was laughing as we walked. More people turned to smile at us as we passed.

“So four sisters?” she asked as we went down the escalator to the ground floor.

“Yep. Cora’s the oldest, then Chloe, Celeste, and Camryn.”

“I meant to ask earlier about that name.”

“Camryn with no e, and a y replaces the o. Fancy spelling. My mother liked the name, and it shortens to Cam, which my sister likes. She’s a scary tax attorney and enjoys it when people expect a man, are surprised she’s a woman, and then even more surprised that she’s a hard-ass and puts them in their place. I think it stems from lack of power growing up. We all lived under Cora’s thumb. Still do, really.”

“Cora sounds great.”

I shook my head.

“You adore her.”

“Adore is a strong word.”

“You’d give her a kidney if she needed it.”

“Well, of course. Do you know how much mileage I would get for that? She’d never be able to yell at me again.”

Her smile was brilliant. “You all have C names. I wish I’d stuck to one letter.”

“My mother says that one letter is easier to remember.”

“You know, a man who loves his mother is always good.”

“You ever see Psycho?”