by Beverly Long
“My son was in the air force.”
“Yes, he mentioned that.” Wasn’t sure where the conversation was headed.
“He had a very dangerous job. And every day I prayed that he would come home.”
“Of course.”
“But for a man like Rico, a man who is brave and honorable and cares too much about others, there are some things that are as dangerous as war.”
Now she felt pretty confident the direction Janice was heading. “I’m sure Rico can take care of himself,” she said.
“He’s a good son. A good man.”
She didn’t need convincing. The last couple days had proven that to her. “You should be very proud,” Laura said.
“He’s not brought a woman home before,” Janice said.
“Oh, please,” Laura protested. “We’re not... I mean, we just met a few days ago.” There was no way his mother knew that they’d had amazing sex. Several times.
Janice raised an eyebrow, so like her son did. “So you both have said. A mother knows her son, Laura. And I know that if he didn’t care for you, he’d have found another solution. He would not have brought you to the hospital. To meet his family. He’s a private man. Very protective of those he loves.”
She said nothing.
“So I beg of you,” Janice continued. “I already have my husband in the hospital with a bad heart. Please don’t break my son’s.”
Chapter 11
Rico watched Laura, Hannah and his mother walk out the door and counted to fourteen before his sister caught his eye and motioned him to step out into the hallway.
“What’s up?” he asked, once they were a safe distance from his father’s door. Placido might be seventy-two but his hearing was that of a thirty-year-old’s.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said.
He felt a but coming.
“But...”
Bingo. “But what?”
“Do you think that this is the best time to introduce your girlfriend and her child to Mom and Dad?”
He reached for calm. But it was a slippery son of a gun. “I can see Mom and Dad jumping to crazy conclusions but come on, Charro, I expect more from you.”
She stared at him. “I’ve known you since you were a child, Rico.”
“Of course you have. You’re two years older.”
“And you always get a certain look in your eyes when you care about something. And you’ve got that look in your eyes when you look at her and her daughter.”
“First of all, Hannah isn’t her daughter. Laura is her caretaker.” Maybe that was true. “And second, it’s really not any more complicated than I explained. We both ended up in the cabin, a booking error, and we rode out the storm together. I didn’t want to leave her alone for the duration of the storm. Certainly not with a small child.”
“Whatever,” Charro said, reverting back to being thirteen. “I’m worried about him,” she said, looking back at the room.
“He seems to be in pretty good spirits. Mom, too.”
“Neither of them wants us to worry.”
“I get that,” he said. “But Dad’s always been healthy. If they can get this heart problem fixed, he could live for a lot longer.”
“We should have a big family gathering this Christmas,” she said. “Invite Mom and Dad’s siblings and all the cousins. They would like that. Maybe when you’re home for the class reunion.”
“Class reunion?”
“Yeah. A couple guys from your class stopped by a few weeks ago. Needed your address to send you an invitation.”
Alarm skittered up his spine. He wasn’t sure why but he’d learned a long time ago to trust his instincts. Maybe it was the disturbance outside the cabin that had no explanation. Maybe it was the odd call from his building’s security desk with the crazy story of the two men wanting to deliver a bookcase that Rico hadn’t ordered. Which made Rico remember that he’d not yet seen the footage from his building’s security camera. He would have to check on that. “What did you tell them?”
“I didn’t tell them anything. I got home from work and they were at my house, talking to Peter. I took them to Mom and Dad’s house.”
In this day and age, who went door-to-door looking for addresses? That’s what social media was for. Plus, he’d seen Maddy Bristol just days ago. She would have mentioned something about a class reunion. “Who? Who were they?” he asked.
Perhaps sharper than Charro could have anticipated, because she pulled back. “I have no idea. Mom said she didn’t remember them from your class but that they were very nice.”
His graduating class had over two hundred. There would be lots of people that his mom wouldn’t recognize. Still.
He wanted to run back inside his dad’s room and ask what information had been handed over to the visitors. But he didn’t want his dad to worry about one more thing. He’d ask his mom tomorrow, after the surgery.
“You’ve been here all day,” he said, gentling his tone. “You should go home, get some rest. Tomorrow could be a long day.”
She nodded. “I’m going to tell him good night.”
Rico waited outside the room, his back up against the wall, letting his sister have her privacy. She gave him a quick wave when she came back outside but didn’t stop to chat. He went back inside his dad’s room and saw that his father had his eyes closed.
Quietly, he sat down in the chair, staring at his father. The man who’d always been bigger than life. Had worked so hard to provide for his children. Had been proud when Rico had enlisted in the air force. Hadn’t been crazy when Rico had chosen to be a TACP specialist because that put him in the thick of things in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But had understood that it suited Rico’s nature.
His dad was fond of saying that Rico had nerves of steel and that nothing shook him.
One of the few things his dad had been wrong about. Because it shook him up pretty good to see his dad in the hospital bed. His skin was dark against the white sheets and his face was shadowed with graying whiskers. He’d probably not shaved this morning.
His dad opened his eyes. “Your sister left,” he said.
“I know. She and Mom will be back early in the morning.”
“I hope your friend Laura hasn’t run away by then.”
“Why do you say that?” Rico demanded. His dad had good instincts. Had he sensed something?
“Your mother may appear sweet, and I’ll defend her honor to the day I die, but she can be a tough cookie, too. She’s going to interrogate Laura.”
Laura would hold her own. After all, she’d practically screwed Rico blind but she was still holding on to her secrets.
“Is she in trouble?” his dad asked.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Rico, you’ve been helping people who are in trouble your whole life. It started when you were in kindergarten and beat up a much bigger eight-year-old for picking on two little girls on the school bus.”
Rico smiled. “Oh, yeah. I remember that.” He wasn’t sure how much to tell his dad. But he needed to tell someone. “We did just sort of stumble into being together at the cabin. But she might be in trouble,” he said. “She’s not being very forthcoming to me.” And Hannah is saying odd things, he added silently.
“Perhaps she and her daughter are on the run.”
Placido Metez had not been an undocumented worker but had busted his butt alongside many on the fruit-picking farms of southwestern Colorado. He understood people who lived in a shadow, going about their business but always, always ready for the big shoe to drop. To squish them and destroy the life they’d made. “She says that Hannah isn’t her daughter, that she’s just a caregiver helping out Hannah’s parents who are traveling in Asia. But there’s a resemblance between the two of them. I think she’s more than a caregiver.”
“We were very poor when you and Charro were little. And one thing I realized very quickly is what a person will do to care for a child. Lie. Cheat. Steal.”
“You wouldn’t do those things.” His father was the most honorable man he’d ever met.
“I didn’t have to. We worked hard and scraped by. But I would have. Make no mistake about it. Would have done all those things and worse to ensure that you and Charro were safe and cared for. Don’t judge her for loving a child.”
“How did you get to be so smart?” Rico asked.
His dad just smiled. “I don’t need a babysitter. You can go home. I’ll be in this bed when you get here tomorrow.”
Rico shook his head. “And miss the opportunity to have dinner in the hospital cafeteria? I don’t think so.”
“You’re going to have to sleep in a damn chair.”
“Dad, I do personal and property security. I’ve slept in worse places. Not that long ago, under a truck. That was parked outside. And the ground was damn cold, by the way.”
His dad smiled but it faded quickly. “I need to know something.”
“What’s that, Dad?”
“I wanted you here because I need to know that if something happens and this does not end well, that you’ll be there to take care of your mother. I believe you will be but damn it, I just need to hear it. I just need you to say it.”
Rico swallowed. “Everything is going to be fine. But if it makes you feel any better, you have my word. I will be here for Mom, for Charro, for the kids. Everyone and everything will be taken care of.”
“I never worry about you, Rico. Never. But Charro. Maybe because she’s my little girl. Or maybe because she’s married to a man who doesn’t understand that it’s his job to take care of his family.” His dad paused. “Charro didn’t have enough money to make last month’s house payment. Your mother and I had to help.”
Rico sat forward in his chair. It was worse than he thought. “I don’t want you to have to do that,” he said. “I’ll help Charro.”
“She said that she’d asked you for help but that you said no. I told her that didn’t sound like you.”
“It’s complicated,” he said. “But I don’t want you worrying about it. I’ll...talk to Charro.”
“She’ll be angry with me if she knows that I told you about the house payment,” he said.
“She’ll never—” a knock interrupted them and a male nurse came in “—know,” Rico finished.
* * *
When Laura woke up, Hannah’s bed was empty. It made her heart immediately start to race. She had not heard the child get up.
She checked the bedside clock. Just after six. Way earlier than Hannah would normally be up.
Laura practically vaulted out of the twin bed. She had the door open and was halfway down the hall when she heard Hannah laughing. And the quiet murmur of Janice’s voice.
She slowed down. Walked into the kitchen. Hannah was at the table, on her knees, having a piece of toast and what appeared to be scrambled eggs. Janice was at the stove.
“Morning,” Laura said.
“Hi, Laura,” Hannah said. “I’m having breakfast.”
“I see that. You must have gotten up very early.”
The little girl shrugged.
“She and Lucky were on the couch when I got up at five,” Janice said. “I was going to let her sleep but she woke up when Lucky scrambled down to go outside. But it worked out fine. We’ve been having a perfectly lovely time.”
“I’m sorry,” Laura said. “You’ve got to have a hundred things on your mind and you didn’t need one more thing to deal with.”
“Nonsense,” Janice said. “I’m grateful for something else to think about. I’ve already talked to Rico. Placido had a good night, relatively restful.”
After Janice had dropped her very poignant remark about not breaking Rico’s heart, she’d gotten busy fixing dinner and had acted as if she hadn’t said anything remotely unusual. Laura had kept Hannah busy and even after Charro arrived with her two children, Nathan and Aleja, who’d evidently been waiting next door, the conversation was innocuous. The kids had talked about school and friends and various things. They’d wanted to know about their grandfather, and both Janice and Charro had provided details of the day.
By the time dishes were cleaned up and Hannah bathed, Laura had almost managed to convince herself that she’d imagined that Janice was warning her away from Rico.
“What time do you want to leave for the hospital?” she asked.
Janice studied the clock above the sink. “Charro said she’d be over about six forty-five. She’s going to drive her own car but wanted to go at the same time in case the streets are bad. Can you be ready by then?”
“Of course,” Laura said.
“I’ll take care of getting this one cleaned up and dressed, if you don’t mind,” Janice said.
Laura wasn’t surprised that Hannah had managed to quickly worm her way into Janice’s heart. She’d done the same thing after Laura had managed to get a job at the daycare.
“I’ll lay out her clean clothes,” Laura said.
Everyone was ready by the time Charro arrived. “It’s not too bad out there,” she said. “Do you have snow like this where you’re from, Laura?”
“Not in Tennessee.” She’d told Janice that she lived there the night before. Had the two women not exchanged notes when Laura had been busy getting Hannah ready for bed? Or was she just testing her, to see if she offered the same explanation?
“But I grew up in Indiana,” she added. “I learned to drive in snow.”
“I see.”
Janice pulled her coat from the hall closet. Charro helped her mother put it on. “Peter has an interview this morning,” she said.
“That’s good,” Janice said.
It was a statement but said almost as if it was a question.
“Of course,” Charro said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
“I know that, dear,” her mom said.
Laura recalled that Rico had said something about Charro being angry because he hadn’t helped her husband find a job. Had the man’s unemployment affected the entire family?
Maybe the man would find something and Rico would be off the hook. It would no longer be an issue between the two siblings.
For today, anyway, they were likely to put it aside. They would bond in their shared concern over their father. And hopefully it would not get any more complicated than that.
They walked out to the garage. Laura waited while Charro got into her car and pulled out of the driveway. Then slowly backed out of the garage, expecting the small drifts that had gathered during the night. Rico’s heavy SUV went right through them. When they got to the street, she saw that the plows had been through already this morning. For now, the snow had stopped again.
Hannah, likely tired from having gotten up much earlier than her regular time, fell asleep on the short drive from the house to the hospital. She awoke when Laura got her out of the car seat but as Laura carried her inside, she again fell asleep on her shoulder.
When they got to Placido’s room, Laura stayed back so that Janice and Charro could enter first. Then she followed them in.
Rico was standing, hugging both his mom and sister. He looked up, their eyes locked, and she swore she felt heat in places that shouldn’t be warm at that moment.
“Hi,” she said. He needed a shave.
“Is she okay?” he asked, his voice low.
“Just tired. She got up early to have breakfast with your mom.”
He smiled. “Let me take her.”
And it seemed the most natural thing in the world to hand over Hannah, who snuggled up against Rico’s chest. “She smells like strawberries,” he said, sniffing her small head. “And her hair is curly.”
She’d discovere
d after Hannah’s bath last night that there wasn’t a hair dryer in the bathroom. She’d then asked Janice if there was one to borrow, only to be told that there wasn’t one. Charro had volunteered to go to her house to get one but Laura hadn’t wanted to be that big of a bother. She’d towel dried the little girl’s hair. This morning, however, when she’d seen her at the table she’d realized her error. Hannah’s hair had sprung back into her natural curls.
“It’s cute,” he said.
“How’s your dad?” she asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Ready,” he said. “Wants to get this over with.” He motioned with his head that they should step out into the hallway. Once there, he asked, “How was your night?”
“Very nice. Your mom is sweet.”
“She and Charro didn’t make you uncomfortable?”
“Your mom told me not to break your heart.”
His dark eyes got big. “No.”
“It’s fine,” she assured him.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She waved away his concern. “We show up together, having been at your cabin together. People can read something into situations that isn’t there.”
He stared at her. Not blinking. “Right,” he said.
Then he shook his head, like he might be trying to clear it. “Was this too early for Hannah?”
“She got up sometime during the night and found the couch. When your mom got up, she woke up and they had breakfast together.”
“It probably was good for my mom to have something else to think about.”
“Exactly what she said.”
He ran a hand over his short hair. Then checked Hannah, who was still in his arms, to make sure she was sound asleep. “Hey, I’ve been wondering about something Hannah said right before we left the cabin,” Rico said quietly. “She said that her mama and dada were both in heaven.”
“I know,” she said. Sometime during the night, she’d decided how to play this. “What an odd thing for her to say.”
He stared at her. “It was a very specific thing—not likely something that she’d get mixed up.”
Laura shrugged. “I’ve known Hannah’s parents for some time. Perhaps there is a story there that I’m not aware of, but I’m certainly not going to drill Hannah about it. She’s four. Her information is probably not very reliable and who knows what kind of issues questions from me could raise.” Read between the lines, Rico. I don’t want you asking her, either.
