Teardrop Lane (22 page)

Misty started to smile, but then she dropped her apple and brought her hand to her mouth. “Is something wrong with Galen?” she asked, her eyes anxious. “Is there a problem? Does his arm have cancer?”

“No, no, no,” Rose hastened to assure her. “I’m not here as a doctor, but a friend. I’ve been visiting Bella Vita with your uncle.”

“Oh.” A world of relief hung in that single word. “Oh.”

The pudgy little wiener dog waddled over toward Rose. She squatted down and scratched the dog behind the ears as Cicero said, “Back to my question. Why are you upset, Worm?”

She gave her shoulders a shrug, darted a look up at him, then returned her attention to the dog.

“It’s nothing.”

Cicero frowned down at her, then reached out and tipped her chin up until she met his gaze.

“I may not know much about ankle biters, but I
do
know women. Even young women. Nothing never means nothing. You haven’t been home, so I’m guessing something happened at school. Do I need to go over there and knock some heads together?”

“Uncle Hunk!” she gasped. “No!”

“Well, I want to know—”

“It’s private!” Misty exclaimed. “My personal business. Can’t a girl have a little privacy?”

That took Cicero aback. He shot a panicked look toward Rose.

“Private? Is she—she’s not old enough—oh.” His gaze turned pleading. “Rose,” he begged.

Rose rolled her eyes.

“Go take Rooster for a walk and give me a minute to speak with Misty.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s a good idea.”

Misty handed him the leash and he awkwardly patted her hand before making a fast retreat.

“What was that about?” Misty asked.

Matter-of-factly, Rose asked, “Has anyone spoken with you about getting your period?”

The girl nodded.

“Like a lot of men, Hunter is deathly afraid of that subject.”

“He thinks I—oh.” Comprehension dawned across her freckled dusted face. Her cheeks reddened, and she shook her head back and forth. “That’s not it. I probably don’t have to worry about that for a year or two. Mama told me. Two girls in my class say they get it, but I’m not sure they’re telling the truth. One of them lies a
lot anyway, and the other just goes along with what the first girl says.”

“I don’t want to invade your privacy, Misty, but your Uncle Hunt is worried about you. Is there anything we can tell him to ease his concern? You
did
look upset.”

Misty glanced toward Cicero, then looked down at her feet. “It’s all okay. Really. We will be fine. My mama told me we might have some rough patches, but that it would all work out in the end.”

“You’re having a rough patch now?”

Misty kicked at a yellow dandelion with the scuffed toe of her sneaker.

“It’s an adjustment.”

She’d repeated the sentence as if she’d heard others say it many times. Knowing the power of expectant silence, Rose waited.

“I don’t want to go home. Scott and Amy have been fighting a lot and yesterday was especially bad because Keenan answered Scott’s work cellphone and it was his boss and Scott got really, really mad. Then Galen ate too much candy and threw up on Scott’s shoes and when Amy was cleaning it up, she threw up, too. And then she told him she’s pregnant! They’re going to have their own baby, and I just know that they won’t want us anymore because we’re too much trouble and we’re not really their kids!”

Rose’s heart broke for Misty and her siblings. Children were bright. They picked up on undercurrents in a household more often than not. It wasn’t her place to inform Misty of pending changes in her life, so she attempted to reassure.

“Honey, in my heart of hearts, I agree with your mother. It will work out for you all. And here’s something else: You can trust your Uncle Hunk and you can depend on him.”

Misty’s lips twitched. “He doesn’t like that nickname.”

“Which is why it’s so much fun to use.” She held out her hand toward Misty. “Shall we go rescue Rooster from the Incredible Uncle Hunk?”

She glanced around the park for Cicero and saw that he had his cellphone to his ear, and was listening intently. When he started to talk in an animated manner waving his arms around, she reconsidered. “On second thought, they seem to be doing okay and there’s something else I’d really love to do.”

At Misty’s curious look, she tilted her head toward the swing set. “I love to swing, but I’m a little embarrassed to be a grown-up and swinging by myself. Would you swing with me and give me an excuse to have fun while we wait for Hunter to finish his call?”

“I guess so.”

Rose wasn’t lying. She did love to swing. It brought out the child in her. She and Sage had spent a lot of time in parks while growing up. Throughout the world, the military base housing where they’d lived invariably had parks with swing sets. She and Sage would sit in swings side by side, and their father would take turns pushing them. More than once, she’d used this same excuse to swing with one of her patients in Davenport Park in Eternity Springs.

May in South Texas wasn’t April in Paris, but it wasn’t bad at all. Temperatures hovered in the low eighties with comfortable humidity, and the perfume of fresh mown grass drifted in the air. Pink Knock Out roses bloomed in abundance in beds around the park. Rose focused on a woman accompanied by a toddler and pushing a stroller as she set her swing moving. For a few minutes, she allowed herself to dream.

Cicero was going to accept the guardianship of four
children. They were going to live in Eternity Springs. He said she mattered to him. What if—

A hand rested against her back and gave her a strong push. Hunter, she thought as she sailed toward the stars.

He’s good at sending a woman to heaven
.

They spent almost ten minutes swinging, and with every whoosh into the sky, Rose’s hopes rose. In the last couple of months, her life path had taken an unexpected curve. She mattered to Hunt Cicero. Maybe, just maybe, she could matter to these motherless children, too.

Cicero was shell-shocked. Two days after arriving in Houston for a short visit with Jayne’s children, he was leaving, heading back to Eternity Springs. He wasn’t flying to Amarillo to pick up his car.
Nope
. He was driving a rented mom-mobile. An SUV with an extra seat in the back and a car-top storage carrier packed full of all the worldly goods of four homeless children fixed to a luggage rack.

A luggage rack!
It was a nightmare right out of the movies. He was no longer Cicero, glass artist and womanizer extraordinaire. He was Clark Griswold in
National Lampoon’s Vacation
. All he lacked was Cousin Eddie.

What the hell am I doing?

It was a ten-hour drive to Amarillo and, factoring one stop every two hours, he had planned for them to arrive by eight o’clock tonight. Only they stopped four times the first hour. The first hour!

“We’ll be lucky to make it home by the Fourth of July,” he groused to Rose as she buckled Daisy into the car seat after yet another dirty diaper.

Thank God for Rose. He didn’t know what he’d have done without her. Every time he got shaky about his decision to take the kids, she was there to offer a steadying hand. She showed extraordinary kindness and patience
with the babbling horde, both individually and as a group—and she’d used her professional credentials to put Scott Parnell in his place when he questioned Cicero’s suitability as a guardian.

The ass, Cicero mentally muttered for the thousandth time since informing the Parnells of his decision. He figured that the underlying reason for Scott’s attitude was guilt. He didn’t know how the man could sleep at night, breaking his promise to four children and a dead woman.

Cicero could understand how a person might get cold feet at the notion of taking responsibility for the half-pint demons, but once he made the commitment, he should follow through.

At dinner the previous evening, Scott had announced the move as Amy dished up spaghetti and meatballs. The kids had taken the news as well as could be expected, he’d thought. The live wire, Keenan, had asked if kids played T-ball in Eternity Springs. Misty then had asked Amy if she’d assume responsibility for the afternoon walk of Rooster. Galen had looked from his older sister to his brother and back to his sister again then started crying. Even the baby seemed to sense the tension in the air.

Cicero had seriously considered decking Scott Parnell with a roundhouse to the jaw. And Amy? Well, he’d give her some leeway due to her pregnancy and the fact that she was married to a prick, but those arguments only went so far. She’d broken a vow. Jayne was liable to find a way to haunt her.

“Uncle Skunk, he’s touching me,” Galen whined from the back seat. “Tell him to stop touching me.”

“He got on my side. Tell him to stay on his own side. Are we there yet?”

Cicero curled his lip as he looked into the rearview mirror.

“Don’t make me stop this car. If you make me stop this car, you’ll be oh so sorry.”

“Why is that, Uncle Hunk?”

“Because I’ll take all of your DVDs and leave them by the side of the road.”

“And who exactly is that punishing?” Rose mumbled.

“I know. But it sounds good.”

The threat shut them up for all of thirty seconds. The kids argued about what movie to watch on the DVD player, but when they finally settled on
Frozen
, they quieted.

Cicero brooded. They were leaving Texas under tenuous legal circumstances. Officially, the Parnells remained the legal guardians of the horde and would for some time. Mac Timberlake had done what he could to facilitate the legal transfer of guardianship, but he’d cautioned Cicero that permanent arrangements would take some time and require jumping through some hoops. In the meantime, the children were officially “visiting” Colorado.

“I need to pee, Uncle Skunk.”

If I don’t pinch their heads off and bury them in shallow graves before we reach Dallas
.

The three younger children finally fell asleep somewhere in north central Texas. In the far backseat, Misty appeared to be absorbed in her book, so Cicero thought it safe enough to attempt a quiet conversation with Rose.

“You are certainly getting more than you bargained for. I wouldn’t blame you if you changed your mind and had me drop you at the nearest airport. Or rental car agency, for that matter. This is road trip torture, and we’re only a little over halfway done for the day.”

“I’m fine and you shouldn’t view it as torture,” Rose replied. “You should think of it as making memories for you and your family.”

His family. The words, the idea, sank into his gut like a stone. He glanced into the rearview mirror to see that Misty had dozed off, too.

Softly, he said, “The family I didn’t sign up for. I didn’t want.”

“I’m calling B.S. on that right now.”

He looked over at her in surprise.

Rose shifted in her seat to face him and folded her arms. “I’m no psychologist, but it’s clear to me after seeing you with Gabi and Flynn, with Mitch and the people on Bella Vita, and then with these kiddos, that you want family more than most. You make family everywhere you go.”

“That’s crazy,” he protested. “I’m all about being footloose and carefree.”

“Sure you are. That’s why since we left Eternity Springs on vacation you’ve called one former foster mom to wish her happy birthday; called a different foster mother and father to wish them happy anniversary; you’ve attended a birthday party for someone you call
Mama;
you’ve scheduled a bachelor party for a friend you sometimes call
Bro;
and you’re taking four children home to raise. That’s only in the past two weeks. No telling what family related things you did the two weeks before that, or what you’ll do in the two weeks upcoming.”

Cicero scowled and punched the gas to get around an 18-wheeler.

“You have a point, but I’ve never looked at it that way before.”

“I think because of Elizabeth, I’ve thought about the definition of family a lot. The genetic bond is important, but it’s certainly not the only way to create a family. Family is what you make it, Hunt. From my perspective, you’ve done a fantastic job making yours.”

“I’m afraid I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”

Rose glanced into the backseats.

“It won’t be easy, but I suspect you’ll find it the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done.”

“I’m just thankful that the day care will have room for them by midsummer. Though, if the glass thing doesn’t work out, I’m going to go into that racket. The price they get for child care makes my head spin. Of course, they’ll earn every penny with these monsters. That reminds me, when we stop next time, help me remember to call the realtor, would you? She should have heard something from the homeowners by now.”

He’d put out the word that he was looking for a rental in town, close to the school. Rose’s sister had tipped him off to a suitable rental that might be available soon, and he was hoping to learn that the rent would be within his reach. In the meantime, Celeste had offered him a reduced rate for the same cottage at Angel’s Rest where he’d stayed with the kids in February. She truly was an angel.

The urchins woke up and after what must have been the three thousandth potty stop of the day, they launched a new version of travel torture—they started singing. For ninety minutes, four voices belted out Disney tunes—and on a couple of songs, five voices since Rose chimed in—until finally, Cicero’s ears and nerves could stand no more.

“Enough!” he roared. “That’s enough. I want five minutes of quiet. I’m going crazy.”

The kids went silent. For about twenty seconds.

Then Galen said, “I want to go crazy, Uncle Skunk. Can I go crazy, too?”

“Too!” Daisy squealed. “Too! Too! Too! Too!”

They stopped for dinner and a mental health break at the next burger joint he spied. The kids ate burgers, fries, and milkshakes and he had hopes that carbo-loading would put them to sleep. Instead, half an hour
later, Keenan puked all over his brother, which started a chain reaction.

Since showers were needed and nerves were fried, they stopped early for the night. That’s when Cicero discovered yet another unhappy reality necessitated by the change in his circumstances. He needed to rent two rooms. Because the hellions were young and impressionable, they divided up into girls and boys.