Fifteen
Chicken was a resounding success with Ray’s kids. I watched the final product shoot on the monitor at the loft set as Chris—selected because he had a personal history with Chicken, not because he knew how to make a killer Chicken Parmigiana—unveiled the shiny cage in the corner of the eldest boy’s bedroom.
The three blinding smiles were enough to melt the coldest heart.
Something deep inside, near my ticking biological clock, twitched. I had always dreamed of having boys. A pair or trio of rough and tumble little men with dirt smudges and guilty looks on their faces.
But it was the little girl who tugged at my soul. A little round-faced five-year-old with blond pigtails that bounced as she clapped for Chicken.
When her brothers let her name their new pet—she chose the name Bub
