by SUE FINEMAN
Alex lay on the bed beside Taylor, holding her, comforting her. Taylor fussed a little, then quieted down and closed her eyes.
“Don’t make her too comfortable,” said Charlie. “They don’t want her to go to sleep.”
Alex resented his interference, but she didn’t want to fight with him in front of Taylor.
She never thought a womanizer like Charlie Kane would be a good father, and she knew he wouldn’t make a faithful husband. With his black hair and sexy gray eyes, wide shoulders, and charming personality, he drew women to him, but he never stayed with one woman for long. She knew what he was like before she went out with him, but he’d just come home from Iraq, and he seemed vulnerable somehow. She couldn’t resist.
Then her father found out she was seeing Charlie Kane and demanded she end the relationship. A week later, she discovered she was pregnant.
With her father so angry, she waited to tell Charlie. And waited.
She’d waited too long. When he looked at her now, his smoky gray eyes were hard with anger. He hated her for what she’d done, or hadn’t done, and she couldn’t blame him. Seeing him with Taylor now, she knew she’d made a huge mistake in not telling him.
The nurse chased her out of Taylor’s bed and woke the sleeping child. Taylor fussed until Charlie held her hand and talked to her. He didn’t coddle her, he calmed her.
When the nurse left, Alex said, “I’m sorry, Charlie. So sorry.” The words threatened to choke her, but she meant them. He deserved to know about Taylor just as Taylor deserved to know she had a daddy.
“Sorry I found out?”
“Sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Family issues.”
“What, your family threatened to shoot you for sleeping with a Kane?”
“Something like that.” Her father threatened to have her declared an unfit mother and take Taylor away if she told Charlie, and the rest of the family wouldn’t even speak to her. Alex’s only act of defiance was to name Taylor after Charlie. After the daddy her grandparents didn’t want her to know.
Now Charlie knew, even if Taylor didn’t, and between Charlie and her parents, her little girl could end up in the midst of a nasty custody battle. No matter what her parents said, no matter what Charlie did, she would not give up her little girl. If she had to leave River Valley to keep her, she would, because her daughter meant everything to her.
<>
The doctor came in to see Taylor the next morning and proclaimed her well enough to leave the hospital. Alex had slept in the chair in the corner, a blanket draped over her, but Charlie stayed in the chair by the side of the bed, as close as he could get to Taylor.
Charlie’s stomach rumbled with hunger, so while Alex got Taylor dressed to leave, he stepped outside with his cell phone and called his mother.
“Charlie, where are you?”
“At the hospital. They’re releasing Taylor now. I was wondering if… I mean… Would you like to meet your granddaughter?”
“Of course I would.”
“I promised her breakfast. Pancakes and bacon. If you don’t want to cook, I could take her—”
“I’ll start the bacon now.”
“Thanks, Mom.” He yawned. “We all missed dinner last night.”
“Then I’ll make plenty.”
Charlie didn’t tell Alex where they were going for breakfast. He drove to the big house on Livingston Avenue, where he’d grown up, and parked on the side street. Since Livingston Avenue was a busy street, nearly everyone came in through the kitchen door.
Alex pulled up behind him and rolled her window down. “No, Charlie. Not here.”
“My mother is already cooking, and she wants to meet Taylor.”
“Oh, God,” she said under her breath. “My father will have a stroke if he knows I brought Taylor here.”
“Then don’t tell him.” Charlie opened the doors for Alex and Taylor. Taylor scampered out as if she hadn’t just spent a long night in the hospital.
Alex hung back and stared at the big golden house with the round corner. “Your parents won’t want me in their home.”
“Whatever happened between your parents and mine happened before we were born.”
“Yes, but—”
Taylor tugged on her mother’s arm. “C’mon, Mommy.”
Alex reluctantly followed Charlie and Taylor to the gate in the white picket fence around the backyard. Coming here could only bring trouble at home, but she didn’t want to be rude to Charlie’s mother.
A beautiful collie ran over to greet them. Charlie opened the gate and rubbed the dog’s head. “This is Wilma. You can pet her, Taylor. She won’t bite.”
She put her hand on the dog’s head, and Wilma slurped her on the face. Taylor giggled and wiped her face with her sleeve.
The back door of the house opened and Hannah Kane stepped out. Alex had seen her picture in the newspaper many times, but she’d never met Charlie’s mother. She had Charlie’s black hair and gray eyes like Taylor’s. And she wore a big smile. “Welcome. I hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” said Charlie.
“Where have I heard that before?” Hannah reached out to take Alex’s hand. “I’m Hannah. Come in and sit down, and I’ll pour you a cup of coffee.”
She leaned over and spoke to Taylor. “Hi. I heard you got a big bump on your head. What happened?”
“Jimmy Morrison hit me with the bat, but he didn’t mean to.”
“I’m sure he didn’t. Did it hurt?”
“Yeah, but it’s all better now. I squeezed Charlie’s hand and the hurt went away.”
Alex watched Hannah share a smile with Charlie. His little trick helped Taylor get through her ordeal. Someday Taylor would look back on the night she met her daddy and remember how holding his hand made her feel better.
Alex glanced around the kitchen, a warm, friendly room with a farmhouse sink, a butcher block island, and a bay with a round table and eight chairs. The room smelled of bacon and cinnamon and coffee. “What a wonderful room.”
Charlie put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “Would you like to help me carry the syrup and butter to the table?”
Taylor grinned. “Yeah. We never get to eat in the kitchen at my house.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Grandmother said we had to eat in the dining room.”
“We eat in the kitchen all the time,” said Hannah. “We save the dining room for special dinners.”
“It smells better in here,” said Charlie.
Hannah brought a plate of pancakes and another of bacon to the table while Charlie poured the juice. They’d just started eating when the mayor himself came in and sat down beside his wife. He winked at Taylor. “Did you save me some?”
“Yeah. It’s good.”
“I know. That’s why I married the cook.”
Taylor giggled.
Hannah said, “Taylor, Alex, this is Donovan, Charlie’s father.”
Donovan smiled at Taylor, then stared at Alex, his eyes widening in recognition. “Alexandra Porcini?”
Alex nodded. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, I’m just surprised to see you here. I didn’t realize you and Charlie knew each other.”
“We met after he came back from Iraq.” In the beginning, they were too hot for each other to care about last names. And then she was so much in love it didn’t matter.
Donovan turned to Hannah. “She’s Vinnie’s daughter.”
All the color left Hannah’s face.
Alex put her fork on her plate. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Please stay,” Hannah said. “No matter what happened in the past, you’re Taylor’s mother, and you’re welcome here.”
“Thank you.” In spite of their kind words, Alex felt intensely uncomfortable in their home. She wasn’t sure exactly what happened between her father and Charlie’s father all those years ago, but her father still loathed Donovan Kane.
Her whole family hated him.
Taylor had syrup dripped on her shirt, but she was flirting with Charlie, and Alex couldn’t help but smile. She looked so happy.
They needed to tell her daughter who these people were, but if they told her now, Taylor would tell Mother as soon as they got home, and Alex wasn’t up to a confrontation with her parents. Not today.
After they finished eating, Taylor yawned, and Alex used it as an excuse to escape from this house and these too-nice people.
“Will you bring Taylor back for another visit?” Hannah asked.
“Of course.”
Charlie drilled into her with stormy gray eyes. “I’ll expect to hear from you by the end of the week.” He handed her a card with his cell phone number.
Staring at the card, she said, “Yes, all right. I’ll call you.”
Alex drove her daughter home. Villa Drive was only a mile or two from Livingston Avenue, but it felt like a different world. The homes in this neighborhood were huge mansions hidden behind lush landscaping and privacy fences. Aside from her college years, she’d always lived here. Papa didn’t believe a proper Italian girl should leave home until she married, but Alex didn’t mind living here. After college, her parents had given her the apartment in the south wing, which gave her and Taylor some privacy.
“Taylor, let’s not tell Grandmother and Papa about Charlie and his family, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because your grandparents don’t like them, and we don’t want to make Papa angry.”
“But I like Charlie.”
“I know, honey. I like him, too.”
As they walked inside, Taylor said, “Mary Beth Snyder says everybody has a daddy.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah. Is Charlie my daddy?”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No.”
But Taylor knew. She knew the man who held her hand in the hospital was her daddy.
“Don’t tell Grandmother and Papa. It’ll be our little secret.”
Taylor grinned. “Okay.”
Chapter Two
Alex looked up and saw her mother standing by the door, arms crossed and an angry scowl on her face. “Where have you been?”
“At the hospital with Taylor.”
“You left there nearly two hours ago.”
“We went out for breakfast. Pancakes and bacon.”
“Foolish waste of money taking a child to a restaurant.”
Alex didn’t want to argue with her mother now, and she didn’t want Taylor telling her where they went for breakfast. “Excuse me, Mother, I want to give Taylor a bath and put her down for a nap. They kept her awake most of the night.”
Her mother stepped aside and let them pass. “Is she all right?”
“She still has a headache, but she should be okay in a day or two.”
“A little girl has no business roughhousing with boys.”
They’d had this discussion before. The Stevens School was a small one, and the kids all played together. Taylor liked playing with boys, and Alex saw nothing wrong with it. But Mother did.
Alex bathed Taylor and tucked her into her bed for a nap. Alex needed a nap, too, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t get one today. Mother was angry, which meant Papa was on another rampage. The older he grew, the more unreasonable he became. He’d be eighty next week, old enough to be her grandfather.
She heard raised voices coming from the other side of the house and crept closer to hear what her parents were fighting about this time.
“The child needs to go to an all girls’ school,” Mother said. “She has no business playing with rough-and-tumble boys. No wonder she got hurt.”
“Then send her to boarding school,” Papa bellowed, “but quit bitching about it.”
Alex slipped quietly into her apartment. Papa wouldn’t really send Taylor away. Mother would fuss and complain, but Papa was the head of the family. Antonio and Mario ran the business now, but Papa still made all the family decisions.
<>
As soon as Alex left the house with Taylor, Donovan turned to Charlie. “Cute kid, definitely a Kane. What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. What do you suggest?”
“Alex is still living with her parents?”
“Apparently.”
“I’d do everything in my power to get Taylor out of that house and away from Vinnie Porcini. I don’t care if he is Alex’s father. He’s a lowlife scumbag.”
Charlie carried dirty plates to the sink and put the butter and syrup in the refrigerator. “I need to know why there’s so much hate between this family and the Porcini family.”
Donovan shared a long look with Hannah. Charlie deserved to know some of it, but he didn’t need to know it all. “All right. Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
Charlie poured himself another cup of coffee and sat at the table.
Donovan sat beside him. “I was a police detective when I met your mother. Her grandparents had died and left her the house with the stipulation that Pop and Billy and I move in with her. Shortly after we moved in, we found a body in the basement, and I understood why her grandfather didn’t want her living here alone.”
Charlie nodded. “I know about that.”
“Since I was personally involved, I couldn’t officially handle the investigation myself. The captain assigned the case to the other lead detective, a man named Constantine Cordelli. He was Vinnie Porcini’s cousin. Cordelli was a bigger sleazebag than Vinnie. If his uncle hadn’t been mayor, if another cousin hadn’t been police chief, he would have been fired.”
“Why?”
“He wasn’t just a lousy detective. He made his people do all the work for him and then took all the credit. And Cordelli coerced witnesses and suspects into having sex with him. One woman refused to cooperate, and he kidnapped her, drugged her, and took her to a brothel, where he gave her to Vinnie.”
“Vinnie raped her?”
“No, we found her in time. She was still in a drugged stupor, but she heard enough to know what was going on, and she testified against the two men involved. The judge sent Cordelli to prison and Vinnie spent a few months in jail. The mayor, Tony Porcini, who happened to be Vinnie’s father, resigned in disgrace.”
“Why? Because members of his family were convicted of a crime?”
“Because the Porcini family had behaved like that brothel was their own private party house. People called it ‘Uncle Tony’s Cat House.’ Vinnie was their biggest customer, only he got his tricks for free, including the first crack at all the new girls.”
“What happened to the woman they kidnapped?”
Hannah put her hand on Donovan’s shoulder. “She married your father. I was the woman Cordelli kidnapped.”
Donovan gazed into her eyes and knew she’d never gotten that awful night out of her mind. Cordelli was already wanted by the police for trying to blackmail Hannah when he took her. Vinnie didn’t get involved until after Cordelli took her to the brothel. He knew who she was and knew she wasn’t a prostitute. And he didn’t care.
Charlie looked stunned. “Why did Vinnie get off so easy?”
“Because he plea bargained and testified against Cordelli. He said Cordelli told him Hannah was going into the business. Vinnie got a light sentence, but he made himself look stupid for believing Cordelli’s lies.”
“Did he really believe them?”
Donovan shrugged. “I don’t know. Vinnie isn’t the brightest person I’ve ever met. He has to be pushing eighty now. His last wife – Alex’s mother – is at least thirty years younger.”
Charlie sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. Donovan knew he was trying to process the information and figure out how it would impact his relationship with Alexandra and Taylor. The little girl didn’t know Charlie was her daddy, but they couldn’t keep it from her for long. The kid was smart, and she and Charlie had the same last name. The same eyes. The same ornery spirit.
Donovan gl
anced at the clock on the wall. “I need to get to work.” He hated to leave Hannah now, but he had a budget meeting at ten and lunch with his staff, something they did every month to talk over potential problems before they grew into serious issues.
He kissed his wife, rubbed his son’s shoulder, and left.
After the shock of hearing he was a father, Charlie didn’t think anything else could surprise him. But he was surprised. He knew his parents didn’t like Vinnie Porcini, but he’d never expected to hear this.
Charlie walked over and hugged his mother, giving her the love and support she’d always shown him. How could anyone believe this woman to be a prostitute? She’d always been a solid, respectable person, a devoted wife and mother who instilled high moral values in her children.
“I should get legal advice.” He didn’t want to fight Alex for custody, but if she wouldn’t let him see Taylor again, fight he would. After a brief taste of being a father, he wanted the whole meal. He wanted to play catch with the little imp, take her skating, and buy her ice cream. And hug her and kiss her and read her bedtime stories.
“Try talking with Alex first,” said Mom. “Maybe you won’t have to take her to court to get visitation rights.”
“I want more than visitation. Taylor is my daughter, and I’ve missed everything – changing diapers, holding her when she cries, her first steps, her first day at school – everything. Taylor’s grandmother told her she didn’t have a daddy. I want her to know she has a daddy who loves her and wants to be involved in her life.”
Charlie wiped off the table. “I need to get my house fixed, and fast, so I have a place to take her.”
“You can always bring her here.”
“I know.” Now that his sister lived in the apartment over the garage, his home for several years, Charlie lived mostly out at the farm, with Andy and his wife, Julie. But he’d mooched off the family long enough. The brick bungalow would provide a private place to live, but Pop’s old house needed a lot of work before anyone could live there.
And if Mabel was right, he needed to get rid of John Garrett’s ghost.
“Did you get the corn planted?” Mom asked.
“I got some in. I’ll get the rest in next week. I’d planned to work on the house this week. The woman who owned it died a few months ago and nobody bothered to go through her things.”