Dashing footsteps announced the children’s race down the long, tiled hall.
“I win!” Javier fist-pumped the air as he slid into the room, jubilant when he spun to face his older sister.
“You did!” Lily hugged the little guy as if she hadn’t deliberately slowed her pace to allow his victory. “Es muy bien, Javi!”
Her voice. Her words. Her encouragement, so like her mother’s before her.
Cruz glanced down. Big mistake, because Lily stared up at him, a miniature of the best friend he’d ever had.
Cruz! Let’s climb to the hayloft! Let’s check the little goats, see if they’ve gotten loose! Let’s go bother Ninny for a snack!
They’d grown up together, cousins by birth and friends by proximity, pestering every caretaker they ever had. Only Cruz’s father had married the rich American landowner and Elina’s mother...
His heart grew tight, remembering.
Elina’s mother hadn’t married anyone, ever. She’d had two kids out of wedlock, Elina and Juan. Juan had been killed in a drug sting on the border nearly fifteen years ago. Elina had gone back to Mexico and...
He had no idea what happened to his old friend and cousin, because he’d never bothered to check up on her. Guilt mushroomed.
He kept his gaze on the children, hands linked, and a voice sounded from somewhere inside him, a place he thought he’d lost a long time ago. “I’ll do it. I’ll stand guardian for them with the teacher.”
He felt her eyes on him, and he was pretty sure he was about the last person on earth she’d pick to watch over these two children for however long the legal process took. But he was equally sure he had no choice in the matter because Elina had been more than his cousin. She’d been his friend when he truly needed one. It was way past time to return the favor.
* * *
Rory Gallagher’s life was one strike away from being called out at the plate by a series of bad pitches.
The filing date for the elongated grant application to help fund her dream preschool for disadvantaged kids loomed in late August. The application process also stated that the school site would be upgraded to meet state standards, and she needed to find this site in an accessible part of a town where real estate sold quicker than water flowing from a tap. On top of that, the popularity of Grace Haven as a place to live, work, play and pray had pushed property values through the roof, making potential sites scarce.
Fortunately, her summer Universal Pre-Kindergarten program was split between two teachers and would end in two weeks. She’d taken the morning session and Glenda Moore ran the afternoon classes. That had allowed her some time, but not much in the way of research or paperwork would get done with two kids to watch, so the little time she’d set aside just got swallowed up.
How had this happened? She’d dotted her i’s and crossed her t’s, planning work and application time carefully, knowing her sister was due to deliver a baby, and that the family might need her help at her sister’s popular event-planning business. And now...
She couldn’t say no to helping with Lily and Javi, even if their story didn’t break her heart. The fact that it did, and that she actually liked their somewhat blustery Italian great-aunt, added to the weight of responsibility.
And then her uncle had relegated her to working with an uptight, full-of-himself financial whiz, and if he glanced at his pricey watch again, she would be tempted to kick him in the shin, just to wake him up to reality. The fact that he was to-die-for handsome with dark chocolate eyes, café au lait skin and rumpled black hair would make heads turn in their thriving summer town.
But not hers, because people whose main goal was amassing wealth annoyed her. How could he be thriving in New York and ignoring his mother’s failing business and health in the Finger Lakes? What kind of person did that?
This couldn’t possibly be happening, and yet—it just had. Cruz Maldonado didn’t look too happy. Well, neither was she, but she understood that Lily and Javier were in need. Their plight took precedence.
“Miss Rory?”
Lily’s plaintive voice melted Rory’s heart. She bent low and snugged an arm around the girl’s thin shoulders. “What’s up, darling?”
“Javi might be scared.” Lily kept her voice soft, her gaze down, not looking up at Cruz. “Like, not much, but...” She leaned in close. “Just a little bit. Maybe.”
Three-year-old Javier didn’t look scared.
If anything he looked energized, while Lily looked nervous. “There is no reason to be scared, my little friends, because we are going to have ourselves...” She paused, building their anticipation. “An adventure!”
“A ’venture?” Javier’s smoke-toned eyes opened wide. “For weal? I wuv ’ventures so much!”
“With him?” Lily glanced up at Cruz and scrunched her face, clearly unconvinced.
“So it would seem.” Rory took Lily’s hand, then stood and took Javier’s on the other side. “Lily, Javier.” She stood as straight and tall as a five-foot-three-inch person could and faced Rosa’s tall, broad-shouldered, successful son. “This is your cousin Cruz.”
“Hey, guys.” He crouched down to meet the kids at their level. “I was friends with your mommy when we were little.”
“You know our mommy?” Excitement heightened Lily’s voice, as if finding someone acquainted with her mother wasn’t the norm. “You played with her?”
“We climbed trees and played in the big barn, and fed goats and chased kittens and trimmed a lot of grapevines in our time,” he told her.
“Our mom was wittle?” Javier eyed him with frank suspicion, as if the words didn’t quite compute.
“Everybody is a little kid at one time,” Rory reminded them. “We start as babies, then we grow to be kids.”
“Then big kids,” added Lily.
“And then we get to be moms and dads!” Javier added that last with all the excitement he could muster. “I’m Javier and I’m th-this many.” He held up five fingers, then forced his thumb down with his other hand. “Four.”
“Almost four. In three months,” Rory reminded him.
“Th-that’s right. Free months.”
Lily pointed up at the clock on the wall. “Can we go back to be with Mimi now?” She looked from Steve to Rory, ignoring Cruz. “I just want to be back with her and I think it’s time.”
“Me, too.” Javier’s voice choked slightly. “I miss my Gator so much.”
Rory caught Cruz’s sympathetic expression, and acted quickly. Something about these kids seemed to touch a nerve in him. A nerve that said the hard-jawed, grim-faced man might actually have a heart.
She bent between the two kids and kept her voice teacher-firm as her brother-in-law entered the room. “You can’t go back and live with Rosa right now.”
“Is she in trouble?”
Leave it to Lily to get straight to the point, but Rory wasn’t about to explain all of the legal issues to the kids, so she opted for plan B. “You know she hasn’t been feeling well.”
Both kids knew that firsthand. They nodded, solemn.
“While the doctors figure out what to do, she needs some extra rest, so you guys are going to stay at my house. You can help me get things ready for school each day, and help me take care of my dog, okay? As an added bonus, we get to walk all over town together. And, Javier, we’ll have someone bring Gator over to my house.” She aimed a reassuring look his way. “And anything else you guys need.”
“You live in the village?” Cruz asked.
She raised her eyes to his. “On Creighton Landing, just beyond The Square.”
“It’s late,” he went on. He swept the kids a quick look before he turned his attention back to her. “Can we meet tomorrow and talk this through? I’m a little unprepared and that’s not my norm.”
She was prett
y sure it wasn’t his norm, because no one rose to the heights of financial security that quickly without being prepared for everything, all the time. “I’m done with school at noon, so the kids and I should get back to my house by twelve thirty or so.”
“And they’re okay with you for the day?”
Was he missing the basic meaning of shared custody? She bit back words of protest because anything was doable for a day. “For tomorrow, yes.”
“Thank you, Miss Gallagher.”
“Rory.” She let go of Javier and put out her hand. “As their teacher I’m a mandated reporter. A circumstance which brought us to this moment. I’m afraid your mother is very angry with me right now.”
“As her only child, I’m familiar with the feeling,” he told her. “And I think it’s highly possible that you are as confounded as I find myself by this sudden change in affairs.” He took her hand in his.
She wasn’t sure what she expected. A cool, hard handshake, quick and businesslike? Or a quick touch of fingers, as if too busy?
She got neither.
He wrapped her hand in his and studied her for long, slow seconds. Did he like what he saw, or was he assessing an adversary? She couldn’t tell, and that didn’t sit well with the youngest Gallagher sister. She hadn’t been gifted with the business acumen her mother and older sister Kimberly possessed, a talent they used to run a mega-successful wedding and event-planning business.
And she didn’t have the stage presence and eye for fashion of her middle sister Emily, now a bridal shop owner.
Rory had gotten Gram Gallagher’s help-for-the-downtrodden heart, but right now her goal might be ruined by lack of time and available real estate. With her mother away, and Kimberly’s baby due soon, she would most likely be adding time spent at Kate & Company to her jam-packed days, further dwindling her grant application period.
She couldn’t let that happen. Kids were depending on her, counting on her to provide strong early education for needy families tucked within the hills surrounding Grace Haven. She’d put things off while her dad fought brain cancer in Houston for the past year. Now that he was in remission, her time had come.
Or so she’d thought.
She held Cruz’s gaze.
He’d read the reaction she tried to hide. Rory wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. She had been taken by surprise, but would she have refused to help?
No.
For now she was going to drive home and get these two kids tucked into bed.
Then she’d sit down and start praying, because her life just got put on hold once more. And to tell the truth, Rory Gallagher was tired of having decisions jerked out from under her. “It’s not the first U-turn I’ve made.” She addressed Cruz with a cool tone. “And I expect it won’t be the last.” She slanted a smile to the children and gave a light squeeze to their linked hands. “But it might just be the most fun.” She turned to her brother-in-law, the new Grace Haven chief of police. “Drew, feel free to catch me up on things as they develop.”
“Drew Slade?” A look of recognition lightened Cruz’s face as he turned to Drew. “It’s been a long time.”
“It has, man.” Drew flashed Cruz a quick smile, then waved Rory off. “I’ll catch up with you later. Are you all set with them?”
He meant the kids, and despite the fact that Rory’s life had just been steamrollered, she was more than willing to take care of these sweet souls. “I am. I’ll leave you guys to the legalese.” She looked down and smiled at two confused preschoolers. “It’s almost time for bed.”
“Good night, guys. Sweet dreams.” Uncle Steve waved as the other men dove deep into discussion of the whys and hows of the situation.
These kids didn’t need to hear conversations about themselves. It wasn’t until she’d gotten both kids through the town hall entrance that they were blessed with quiet, the strong male voices muted by distance.
“Come on, guys. Let’s call it a day, shall we?”
Javier looked around, confused.
Lily tried to look brave, but her lower lip quivered as the five-year-old fought tears.
Rory led the kids to her car, tucked them into the seats she’d borrowed from the fire hall and drove home because there really wasn’t any other choice.
Chapter Two
Cruz took the right-hand turn along the lake’s western shore, determined to ferret out the facts of the situation from his mother.
She wouldn’t want to see him. She’d made that abundantly clear in the past. They’d fought after his father’s death, and Rosa had ordered him out of the house and out of her life, then spent years ignoring his attempts at reconciliation. Funny how a woman who professed faith in the Bible shrugged off forgiveness in favor of old-world pride.
He pulled into the curved drive leading into Casa Blanca and hit the brakes hard in disbelief.
Flaking, peeling paint marred the front of the house. Weeds and grass had infiltrated the once pristine gardens, while twining roses fought a losing battle with invasive weeds, climbing and choking the once beautiful trellises.
Beyond the curving drive and parking lot, both in need of repair and sealing, his father’s previously impeccable vineyard stood ragged. Overgrown vines stuck out at odd angles, choking and shading the growing fruit below. The barns didn’t look too bad, their paint appeared more recent, but the once prestigious event center had fallen into grave disrepair.
He’d only been gone eight years. How could things have gone this bad in eight short years?
The front door opened.
His mother emerged.
She stared at him as he pulled the car into the drive. Arms folded tight around her middle, she stood straight, solid and self-protective as he exited the car and walked her way. “Hello, Mother. Long time, no see.”
She glared at him, then the upscale car, then him again. “You’ve come to brag, no doubt. To laugh in the face of my ruination. Well, have your say and get out. There’s nothing for you here.”
Was there ever?
Yes, when his father was alive. His father loved to spend time with his only son, seeing and doing things together, learning “the grape” as he called it. He’d spent long hours working side by side with his father, a master vineyard manager, an immigrant success story. And while they’d worked the grape, his mother had managed the sprawling event center she’d inherited from her parents.
He longed to sass her back in kind. If asked, he would have sworn he’d gotten over all of this years ago, but he was mistaken because the urge to argue with his mother was on the tip of his tongue.
Then he remembered Reverend Gallagher’s words that morning. Your mother is sick. Her heart is bad and she’s diabetic, and there are two illegal immigrant children living with her. She needs you, Cruz. And Elina’s children need you, too.
He hadn’t even known Elina had children. If pressed, he wouldn’t have been able to say what his cousin had done once she’d left for Mexico...but what were her children doing here, and what happened to Elina? “How are you?”
The simple question took her by surprise, but not for long. “I am fine. The children and I are fine.”
A lie. Again, no surprise. “Reverend Gallagher says you’ve been ill.”
“I have my days. Some good, some bad. Why are you here? Did he call you?”
Cruz nodded.
“He shouldn’t have done that. He should have left things be.”
“Well, the thought of you serving a jail sentence for harboring illegal immigrants weighed on his conscience. He is, after all, a minister.”
She scowled. “He’s a neighbor first, a man who knows you have no respect for the mother who gave you life and raised you. Steve knows this, and yet he still makes the call.” She raised her chin, a classic move. “I can’t imagine what he was thinking.
”
She needed help in more ways than one. Her Italian skin tones were usually deeply tanned by this time of summer. Today she looked pale, and the threadbare pants and loose shirt she wore had seen a lot of use. Always stocky, she’d put on weight since the funeral. The changes in her appearance reflected the ones on the estate. “I told Steve I would help.”
She scowled. Her face darkened. “And as I have said before, I don’t need your help, Crusberto.”
The cold anger in her face used to break his heart.
No more.
He’d moved beyond her reach, and her tirades meant nothing now. “You’re wrong. You do need my help. The place is a mess, and my guess is you tried to overmanage everything like you usually do, your workers quit and you got yourself into debt trying to recover. But now you’re in too deep and there’s no way out, and you’ve got two kids to watch. How am I doing so far?”
She unwound her arms and fisted her hands. “You checked up on me.”
“No.” When she almost relaxed, he added, “I had my office assistant check up on you while I drove here, so the fact that you are bordering on bankruptcy and your business is uncared for tells me you’re on the brink of disaster. If we throw a double federal offense onto the table for willfully harboring two illegal aliens and passing them off as your grandchildren...” He set one foot on the lowest step of what had been a gracious, columned porch, leaned in and said, “You’re wrong, Mother. You do need me, like it or not.” He straightened and shoved his hands into his pockets as memories surged. “Honestly, if it was just you, I’d walk away, like you did to me so many times, but it’s not just you. There are two little kids involved, who deserve a better chance than they’ve gotten so far, and who’ve done nothing to deserve being raised by you.”
He expected her to lash out. He was prepared for that. What he wasn’t prepared for were the tears.
Her hands lost their tension.
Tears streamed down her cheeks in silent succession.
Their Surprise Daddy Page 2