“It looks so…”
“Normal,” Deanna supplied for him.
He nodded. The vague memories that he had of the one room apartment where he’d lived with his parents were nothing like this little slice of Americana. Nor had any of the foster homes come close, except for the last—a neat bachelor bungalow run by a Marine. Everything in that place had been shipshape, but lacking the feminine touches manifested in the simple home before him.
“Having cold feet?” Deanna asked and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Cold feet were only the start of what he was feeling. His stomach was in a knot and a sickly sweat was slowly dampening his shirt.
“It’s okay to have second thoughts about this,” she reassured, rubbing his shoulder in an attempt to lessen his nervousness.
“How about third and fourth thoughts?” he teased, trying to lift his own spirits with the humor.
“We can go. Come back when you’re sure,” Deanna offered, but he shook his head. He had been putting this off for a couple of weeks, ever since he had tracked down his parents with the help of several of his contacts.
His father had died well over a decade earlier in a bar fight caused by his violent temper. Witness statements said his father started the argument that had escalated and ended up with him stuck like a pig with a knife.
Sadly, Bill hadn’t felt anything other than relief at knowing his old man would never be able to hurt anyone again.
His mother had remarried, but had never had more children.
His mother who lived in the neatly tended to Cape Cod house just yards away in this very normal Long Island suburb.
“Bill?” Deanna prompted after his prolonged silence.
“I can do this,” he said beneath his breath, but she quickly amended it to, “We can do this.”
He looked at her and smiled. They had done so much in two short months. Survived Primera Mexica. Gotten married. Handled her mother and father running off with a relic that could change the world, although if their word was any good, they would be returning any day for the start of the school year and maybe a new start together as a family.
A new start, he thought and repeated, “We can do this.”
Exiting the car, he walked around to where Deanna waited for him at the start of the driveway. He slipped his hand into hers and together they walked up the drive and to the door. He knocked and waited. Heard the sounds of activity before footsteps came toward the entrance.
She opened the door, a smile on her face. Looking older, but as beautiful as he had finally remembered. When she gazed up at him, tears filled her eyes and she covered her mouth with her hands. Shook her head in disbelief before finally uttering his name.
“Guillermo? Is it really you?” she asked and reached out, stroked her hand along his cheek as if to prove to herself that he was really there.
“It’s me, Mami,” he said and then she was in his arms, holding him tight. Shifting away to look at Deanna and then hugging her as well.
“Come in, mi’jo. Please come in,” she said and stepped back, opened the door wider to let them in.
The inside of the home was just as neat and tidy as the exterior. Modestly priced furniture was clean and arranged for comfort and not for show. She ushered them to the living room and nervously stood there before she said, “Let me get you something. A drink? Something to eat?”
“I just want to talk. Find out about you. Your life,” he said, needing to fill in the gaps from the information he had discovered about her. Needing to know things that the papers couldn’t tell him. Why she had left him. Why she had never come back.
She seemed to understand then and sat down. Hesitantly she answered all of his questions, clearly ashamed at times of her own weakness and yet confident that she had made the right choices for him.
“I know your life couldn’t have been easy, but I know in here,” she said, tapping a spot above her heart, “that it would have been far worse if you had stayed with us.”
Bill wanted to ask why she hadn’t left his father. Why the two of them hadn’t gone off together, but in a way, none of that mattered anymore. The pain in his past had been soothed by Deanna’s love and all he wanted now was to start their future off right.
“It’s okay, Mami,” he said, stilling the nervous motion of her hands with his. Holding them tight as he said, “I forgive you. It’s time you forgave yourself.”
Tears welled up again and ran down her face. “Is there room for me in your life now, mi’jo?”
Deanna, who had been sitting silently beside him, finally spoke up. “That’s why we’re here. For a fresh start.”
Bill’s mother nodded and then gazed up at her son lovingly. “I’d like that, mi’jo. How about we start with you telling me more about yourself and your lovely wife?”
Bill smiled and shot a half glance at Deanna. “That would be my pleasure,” he said and twined his fingers with Deanna’s.
Together they would handle this, he thought, liking the sound of that word immensely.
Together.
About the Author
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of paranormal and romantic suspense fiction, Caridad Piñeiro wrote her first novel in the fifth grade when her teacher assigned a project—to write a book for a class lending library. Bitten by the writing bug, Caridad continued with her passion for the written word through high school, college and law school. In 1999, Caridad’s first novel was released and a decade later, Caridad is the author of more than twenty-five novels and novellas. When not writing, Caridad is an attorney, wife and mother to an aspiring writer and fashionista.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-9188-5
Copyright © 2011 by Caridad Piñeiro Scordato
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