“But Mama!”
If only. “It’s not your mother.” Dan scooped Buddy into his arms as he turned the knob.
A young man stood on the doorstep, obviously a member of the Santoro clan with his dark hair and startling blue eyes. An easy grin stretched across his face as he held out his hand. “You must be Dan Ranta?”
“I am.” Dan gave the guy’s hand a firm shake. “Antonio Santoro, I assume.”
“Tony.” The other man laughed. “Only my nonna insists on my legal name.”
“Well, come on in. This is Buddy, who just turned four.” Oh, no. Dan had forgotten to ask Marietta whether this guy was comfortable with kids... but she wouldn’t have suggested the arrangement if he wasn’t. Right? Although, knowing the older woman, he wouldn’t put it past her if it offered the results she wanted.
Buddy stared with open curiosity as Tony wrinkled his nose and grinned at him.
“This is Mandy. She’s in kindergarten.” Dan motioned to the little girl as she carried a glass of water to the table. “Mandy, say hello to Tony.”
“Hi.” She studied him then turned back to Dan. “Henry has a poopy diaper.”
Dan stifled a groan. Of course, he did. Timing was everything. He slid Buddy to the floor and grabbed the stinky toddler. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.”
When he returned a few minutes later, Tony was seated in the middle of the sofa with a kid snuggled on either side, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in an expressive voice. “...but he was still hungry!”
Buddy giggled. Huh. He hadn’t smiled a lot in the past week since his mom had disappeared. Maybe Tony was a godsend after all.
“More story!” Buddy scrambled off the sofa.
Tony glanced over at Dan. “Maybe in a bit. I came to visit with your daddy.”
Mandy surged to her feet and placed both hands on her hips. “Mama says he’s not our daddy. Just Henry’s.”
And that one had been acting out all week, pinballing from being super needy to standoffish. Dan’s heart ached for her. How was a guy supposed to handle the situation? And, if he did win custody and he and Dixie stayed separated, how on earth was he going to see Mandy through her teenage years? She didn’t need hormones to be a handful.
Tony’s gaze bounced between them, but he stayed quiet. Smart man. No doubt his grandmother had briefed him on the situation.
“Let me show you around upstairs,” Dan said. “Then the kids can get ready for bed while we talk.”
Buddy scowled and crossed his arms. “No bedtime.”
Dan ruffled the little boy’s soft curls. “But it is. You want to show Tony your stuffed tiger?”
“Okay.” Buddy scrambled up the stairs. “Come see.”
“I know it’s a little backward.” Dan led the way up. “We haven’t talked about any of the details, but I’d rather have that conversation after the older two are tucked in bed. So, forgive me for being vague in front of them.”
He pointed into the first bedroom. “This is Mandy’s current room. Beside it is the boys’ room. These can be... ah... consolidated. The beds form a bunk.”
Tony nodded, peering into one space then the other.
“Here’s the hall bathroom. And then the master bedroom is a little bigger with its own bath.”
Buddy shoved his tiger at Tony’s leg. “See?”
The man squatted and touched the stuffie’s head with a gentle finger. “He’s so fuzzy. What’s his name?”
“Tiger.”
“A tiger named Tiger. At least we won’t forget his name, right?”
The little boy looked at him uncertainly then dashed back into his room.
“Get your pajamas on, Buddy,” Dan called.
“No want to.”
“It’s time, anyway. Mandy, you, too.”
She scowled at him but went into her room and shut the door rather firmly.
This wasn’t the moment to reprimand her. Dan turned back to Tony as they descended the steps. “Downstairs is mostly what you saw. Kitchen, dining space, living room. A laundry room with a half bath. An office too small to be a bedroom. Outside we’ve got a decent covered patio and fully enclosed backyard. Great place for the kids to play.” He felt like a real estate agent trying to sell the property.
Keeping Henry with him, Dan hurried through tucking the older ones in bed, aware of a virtual stranger sitting in his living room. It seemed crazy to offer a home and job to someone he didn’t know, but he was fresh out of options. He had to trust the guy, though. Had to trust Marietta’s assessment of her grandson.
Tony sat at the kitchen table jotting into a notebook when Dan returned. The few dirty dishes had been washed and stacked in the drain rack, and the living room had been tidied, not that it had been messy. Dan had been home all day, every day, for the past week, with little else to do besides keep things picked up.
The other man looked up, set down his pen, and leaned back in his chair. “Nonna mentioned you needed someone to live in for early morning childcare?”
No beating around the bush. That could only be a good thing, right? “It’s true. Did she also tell you all about me?”
Tony chuckled. “Maybe. Why don’t you tell me what you think is pertinent?”
Dan set Henry down, and the little boy toddled off to clench a toy car in each hand. “So, Mandy’s right. I’m not her dad, hers or Buddy’s, just Henry’s. Dixie Wayling is the mother of all three kids. We were together for a few years. Marriage was never a priority until I became a Christian about six months ago. Dixie... isn’t interested in God. We separated, and she stayed here with the kids until she left them to go drinking one day. Then I moved back in and kicked her out. That was in July.”
“God has a way of upending our lives,” Tony said quietly.
“Sure does.” Dan scrubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s worth it, totally, but it’s come with a fair share of challenges. Anyway, I took over my dad’s landscaping business a couple of years ago. Dixie came here most days to watch the boys while I worked. When she didn’t show, I dropped the boys off at Fran Amato’s.”
“My cousin Fran. Our dads are brothers.”
“Right. Of course. She’s great, and Buddy and Luca play well together. Only two things have happened recently to complicate things even further. One is that Dixie’s gone.” Dan lowered his voice and glanced toward the stairs, hoping the silence meant the kids were asleep, or at least in bed and not eavesdropping. “She’s messed up. My lawyer is helping me file for custody.”
“My cousin Peter’s fiancée?”
Dan chuckled. “You really are related to half of Bridgeview. Yes, Sadie. She’s been very helpful all through this mess. Anyway, the other thing I should have seen coming. In the winter, when lawns are dormant, Ranta Landscaping takes snow-removal contracts. We have a number of longstanding customers. The thing that I wasn’t paying attention to was the timing. I need to be out there in the middle of the night if it’s snowing, clearing parking lots and driveways before the morning commutes. The past couple of years, Dixie’s been here with the kids, so I didn’t need to think about them.”
Tony rested his elbows on the table and studied Dan. “Nonna respects you, and so do my cousins.”
“She does?” Dan wanted to be upset at being talked about behind his back, but this was interesting info. “She didn’t want us as renters because we weren’t married, but her son—”
“My uncle Ray talked her into it.” Tony laughed. “I may never have actually lived in Bridgeview before, but I’ve spent a lot of time here, and I’m close with my family.”
“At any rate, that’s my predicament. I don’t have many decent options. Hire a sitter whom I can call at three a.m. to come over if I need to plow. Have the kids spend the night at Fran’s, or somewhere else, any nights it looks like snowfall is an option, or...” He spread his hands.
“Or have someone like me move in, someone who can roll with it.”
“Yeah. Or hire another guy to run the thir
d Bobcat and take the financial hit, which has looked like the best option until now.”
Tony leaned back into his chair. “About me. I graduated from culinary school in Seattle, worked in a couple of top restaurants there, and spent the past year cooking in my uncle’s Italian restaurant in Twin Falls while taking business courses. It’s been my dream since I was a teen to run my own kitchen.”
Impressive. Dan had sold used cars until this opportunity with his dad had come up. He’d lacked the younger man’s drive. Still lacked it.
“My original goal was to launch before I was thirty, but I wasn’t counting on my family’s push to make it happen sooner. Two of my uncles here in Spokane are in construction, and Uncle Franco came across the perfect property on this side of downtown. Needs a load of renovation, but it will do nicely.”
Must be nice to have a family that got behind a guy. Believed in him. Dad had put all his hopes into Dave Junior with nothing left over for his other two children.
“Anyway, I’m here to oversee renos and plan my restaurant’s launch sometime next spring.” Tony shook his head, grinning a little. “Hard to believe, but that’s where I’m at. I’ll also need a place to live. I’d thought of bunking with Alex, but his place is full up right now. As Nonna told you, no doubt, my aunts figure I should live with Nonna and look out for her.”
Dan scratched his neck. “Yeah, that’s what she told me. Said she didn’t want someone underfoot.”
“She doesn’t seem to need supervision.”
“Agreed. Not that I know her well. She’s my landlady and the grandmother of some of my friends. I’m sure she’s slowing down some as she ages, but I don’t remember hearing anything about a health crisis.”
“I’m sure she’d put me up, or I know Uncle Ray and Aunt Grace have room, but I wouldn’t mind being useful as well as taking up space. I can set my own hours easily enough right now, since my uncles are doing the heavy lifting at the property. My main job seems to be making decisions.”
“I can move Mandy in with her brothers for the time being, and I’ll move into her room. You can have the master. I’ll pay you—”
“I can’t take your bedroom. The smaller one’s fine, really. As for paying me, what’s room and board worth around here these days?”
“I don’t know.”
Tony held up a hand. “I get that, if this works out, I’m meeting a need for your family. But, at the same time, you’re meeting a need for me. I wasn’t planning on mooching off of my nonna, either. I’ve been saving up for interim expenses.”
Yes, Dan had been praying about the situation, but this? This was beyond his expectations. Well beyond. “I can’t—”
“You’d be doing me a favor. Nonna rules her kitchen and will only let someone else in there begrudgingly. She’ll let me cook for her sometimes if I ask nicely, but not all the time. I’m hoping you’d let me have some rein.”
Were those tears pricking Dan’s eyes? Since when did he get all emotional? Since Dixie had been giving him the runaround. “You want to cook for me? For the kids? And that’s another thing. What do you know about children? Henry isn’t potty-trained, and Buddy has an occasional accident still.”
“My sister has two kids, a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. I’ve watched them for the weekend a few times, and we all survived. I like kids, but I think I chose the wrong profession for a family of my own. Chefs’ hours are wicked.”
“I bet.” Dan’s mind still reeled. Could this really be the answer? “Want to give it, say, a week? If it doesn’t work out for you, no worries. We can just part ways, and it will all be fine.” Other than he’d still need a sitter.
“A week sounds like a fair trial. I’ve got a question, though.”
“Oh?”
“What about the kids’ mother? What will she think if I’m living here, watching her children?”
“I’ve spent three years wondering what Dixie will think of everything. I can’t do it anymore.” Dan grimaced, shaking his head. “My best suggestion is to use the deadbolt, and don’t let anyone in that you don’t personally know. I’ll introduce you to the neighbors.”
“And your family?”
As if. “They’re not in the picture.”
Tony studied him a moment longer then nodded. “Tomorrow, then?”
11
Dixie squinted at the time as she reached for the phone. Ugh. Only eight-thirty, and she hadn’t crawled back onto Tanisha’s sofa until after four. And the caller was her mother. Ignoring Eunice Wayling was of no use. She’d just keep calling every two minutes until Dixie picked up.
She groaned and slumped back onto the rigid, threadbare arm. The phone went silent. Then a little beep signaled a voicemail. Dixie’s headache pulsed, and her mouth felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton balls.
What had she been thinking, leaving Kristoff’s at closing with those guys and moving on to the bar down the block? When the dancing part of the mobile party was over, she’d asked the bartender to call her a cab. The guys’ interest in her was past borderline by then, and she wasn’t too drunk to know she’d had enough. Enough beer. Enough groping.
She didn’t want anyone but Dan, and he was too goody-two-shoes, like he hadn’t slept around as much as she had. As far as she knew, though, once he’d moved in with her, he’d been faithful.
Now he wanted to marry her, or at least he had last week. She’d likely burned that bridge along with every other on Thanksgiving Day.
Dixie forced herself upright and into the bathroom to take care of business. Brushing her teeth and gulping a glass of water also helped. Now for coffee... she might hate the stuff, but it did help with the inevitable.
Her phone rang. She took a deep breath and reached for it. “Hi, Mom.”
“Dixie Dawn! Where are you?”
She winced. Hello to you, too. “Staying with Tanisha for a bit. Did you have a nice cruise?”
“Tanisha? Better than Dan Ranta, that...” She growled the string of obscenities she reserved for him, words he didn’t deserve. Never had.
Dixie rubbed the center of her forehead. “Mom, stop. I asked you a question. How was the cruise?”
“Okay, I guess. You’ve been to one Caribbean island, you’ve seen them all.”
How would Dixie know? She was pretty sure it wasn’t true, but apparently Mom now wanted to play the blasé world traveler.
“Why did you go to Tanisha’s? When I saw your stuff gone, I thought for sure you’d moved back in with Dan.”
“It’s a long story, but Dan and I are done.”
“Finally. But where are the kids?”
Here it came. “With him.”
“All three? Even Mandy?”
Dixie cringed at the shriek in Mom’s voice. “Yeah. They’re better off with Dan than me.” Because she was now working a night job and drinking too much. Again.
“You know he’ll just dump them off at CPS when he gets tired of them. He probably already has.”
Child Protection Services? Not Dan. He loved those kids. All of them. “He won’t.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Geez, Dixie, can’t you do anything right?”
The familiar refrain bounced dully off her aching head. “No. I’m a loser like you’ve always said.” Just living up to expectations, Mom.
Her mother sighed heavily into the phone. “So, Tanisha. How long is that going to last? You can’t mooch off your friends forever like you did me.”
“I’m not sure, but I’m not mooching. I’ve got a job.”
“A job?”
Dixie could about see her mother’s plucked eyebrows peak in disbelief. “Yeah, I’m working at K—” Did she want her mother showing up where she worked? Not at all. “At a bar on the east side.”
“Good tips?”
They’d be better if Dixie flirted more. She tried, but Dan’s brooding blue eyes accused her every time. “Not bad.”
Mom huffed. “You tell Dan not to bother calling me if those
kids are too much for him. He made his choice. He can deal with it.”
Dixie’d had enough. “I’ll tell him. Gotta go now.” She clicked the phone off and stared out the window into the early December sky, thick with gray clouds.
Why had her mother always hated Dan so much? And, by the sounds of it, she’d rather the kids, especially the boys, did go into foster care than sully her hands with them. She wasn’t the cozy grandmotherly type, that was for sure. Each of the three was evidence of Dixie’s screw-ups.
They were far more than the sum of their conceptions, though. Mandy idolized her mom so much, like Dixie had idolized hers. And just like Eunice Wayling had let Dixie down a thousand times, Dixie had done the same to her beautiful, delightful daughter. The little girl’s devastated sobbing had wrenched her heart the other day. Still haunted her nightmares.
Buddy. Slow to speech... slow to hit most of his milestones, really. The little guy did everything with ferocity. He ran full tilt into everything, good or bad. Wasn’t that just like his mama? Buddy adored Dan, and there couldn’t be a better masculine role model for him.
And Dixie’s sweet baby, Henry. He’d had his daddy since birth, unlike the others. He probably didn’t even miss his mama. Why should he? She’d been an erratic presence at best in his young life.
Mom was right. Dixie was a loser. Her greatest failures — according to her mother, at least — were also her greatest blessings, but she was too messed up to do them justice. At least removing herself from their life also removed their toxic grandmother.
Dan would take good care of them. Maybe someday he’d meet a nice woman who’d... what, take on Dixie’s mess? Yeah, not likely.
And if he did, Dixie’d forget to be grateful. She’d head right on over and scratch the woman’s eyes out. Really? But she didn’t want Dan for herself?
She did. She wanted him more than she could process. But not on his terms. On hers.
Dan entered Bridgeview Bakery and Bistro on Wednesday morning, Jacob and Tony on his heels.
“Good morning, guys. And you must be Tony Santoro.” Wearing a friendly smile, Hailey came around the end of the counter and crossed the tile floor, hand outstretched. “I’m Hailey North. My cousin and I own this café, but I hear you’re going to give us a run for our money.”
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