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There was no mistaking Kate’s feelings. She looked right at me and blurted it out. It was like everything suddenly locked into place. The excitement, anxiety, passion, all this stuff that wasn’t normally me, suddenly made sense. Of course she loved me. And I loved her. And that was the beginning and end of it.

Between that, a seven-game winning streak, and a secret concert, I had everything going my way.

Well…almost.

“What’s your experience with children?” I asked the very nice woman sitting at my kitchen counter.

She rattled off a word-for-word repeat of her resume. In the ten minutes she’d been here I learned nothing about her that I didn’t already know from the emails we exchanged and the resume she sent me.

Nothing.

And she wasn’t the first. This was the tenth interview and none of them were a good match. I was really glad I asked Kate to join us because I was starting to think I was the problem not the other way around.

“Thank you for coming over. I’ll let you know what we decide,” I said for the tenth time as I walked her to the door. I waited until I heard the engine of her car then watched her drive away before I returned to the kitchen.

Kate and Everett were already shaking their heads as they spoke.

“Another no?” I sighed.

“Absolutely not,” Kate said first.

Everett agreed. “Rosie would eat her for breakfast.”

“At least it would cut down on the grocery bill.” How on earth were we going to find someone who could essentially be part of the family? “We need to rethink this. We can’t hire a stranger.”

Everett slung back some coffee. “We already canvased the island.”

We tried friends of our parents, kids we grew up with, anyone who’d know us, but no luck. “Maybe someone who works with the Mantas? Like a college kid or one of the player’s girlfriends?” I was grasping at straws. I knew that.

But Kate snapped her fingers. “Hannah!”

“Hannah?” Who was Hannah? I actually didn’t think I’d ever known a Hannah before.

“Hunter Holland’s mother. She’s been staying with Hunter and coming to all his games this season.”

How did I not know that?

Everett began nodding furiously. “Oh…that might just be perfect, Kate.”

“Why is she so perfect?”

“She’s bored,” Kate shrugged. “All her kids are off to college now and she divorced her husband. She’s been working odd jobs, trying to find herself. She’s a lot of fun and I like her a lot.”

“Same. Plus she bakes really good cookies.” Everett rubbed his belly.

Cookies? “Is that where the cookies keep coming from?”

Kate nodded. “And the bagels. She needs a job, somewhere to live, and she loves kids.”

“How do you know she loves kids?”

“She says it all the time. Now I want cookies.” Everett got up and snagged a chocolate chip cookie from the plastic container. “She makes sure Hunter takes a picture with every kid who comes down to the net.”

I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Can you set up an interview?”

Kate grabbed a cookie too. “I’ll ask her if she’s interested. If she is, you can just talk to her at the game. She’ll be there.”

“Plus Kate and I already approve.” Everett grabbed two more cookies.