“One sec,” he tells me, then he turns his attention to the call. “Chief? Yeah, I’m going to be about fifteen minutes late. I got puked on. Thankfully by a child, but I’ve got to change.”
He’s quiet for a minute, then ends the call. He faces me with a smile that seems to spread across his whole face. “Could be worse. I could be the one who did the puking. At least I can still make my meeting.”
“Oh God.” The reality of what’s going on hits me. He’s dressed up. He was running out the door. And now, we’ve made him late. “What can I do? Do you have another shirt? Can I iron something?”
Vito looks at me for a second and laughs so hard, I am tempted to join in.
“Iron?” A woman who looks like a female version of Vito is laughing with him. I just met her a minute ago, but I can’t for the life of me remember her name. “My brother wears pajamas and house slippers twenty-four seven. He doesn’t have another dress shirt.”
Vito takes the dirty shirt from me and thrusts it at his sister. “Go stuff this in the laundry. Help your brother out.”
She gives Vito a look but then holds out a hand. “Am I washing your pants too?”
For a hot minute, I hold my breath, wondering if he is actually going to strip off his pants right here in front of us all. But he just flicks his sister in the ribs and then takes the stairs two at a time.
While the hottie goes up to change, I head into the kitchen to see how my daughter is.
“Well, don’t we make a fine first impression,” I say, shaking my head. My aunt Shirley’s meeting my daughter for the first time ever, but they seem to be getting along just brilliantly.
Juniper is sitting on the kitchen counter, her own shirt miraculously free of any signs of the mess. Her face is clean, and her hair has been smoothed back from her face. She’s got a small bowl of water in front of her and one of those baby washcloths with a soft gray elephant attached to it. She’s following my aunt’s instructions and gently dabbing at her own cheeks with the cloth.
The sight breaks down a wall I have built around my heart, and I immediately burst into tears.
“Honey, it’s okay.” My aunt’s friend Lucia is comedically short, so she comes over to comfort me but can’t reach my shoulder. She rests a comforting hand on my lower back and just pats me. “Throw-ups happen. We have a lot of kids coming through this house. Believe me, we’ve seen worse.”
My aunt has her hands firmly on Junie’s waist, so she is secure, even sitting on the counter. “No more tears,” my aunt insists. “We’re family. Cleaning up messes comes with the territory.”
But that’s what Auntie Shirley doesn’t understand. This is uncharted territory for me. I’ve had to hide Juniper for so long that having someone love her on sight is foreign to me. I just don’t know how to accept this kind of love. This is why I left Los Angeles. I had no idea what I was getting myself into moving here. I had very few options left, though, and if this is how things are going to go, I can’t imagine making a better decision.
Lucia wraps her arm around my waist. “You know, honey, how old is Juniper? One? She could be teething too. It might not just be carsickness. Those baby teeth are a real pain.”
I wipe away the tears for the second time today and chuckle. “They are awful,” I agree.
And she’s right. Junie’s been chewing and drooling so much lately, I’m sure that red spot I noticed on her gums the other day is another tooth about to break through.
“What do you say, Junebug?” I walk over to my aunt and rest a hand on Shirley’s shoulder. I don’t want to pull my daughter from her great-aunt before they have a chance to bond. Junie’s only had me as a caregiver for most of her life. I’m thrilled she seems so interested in all the new people that she’s not clinging to me.
“Mama, elephant.” Junie dunks the washcloth into the water, sending a small sprinkle of water onto my aunt’s sleeve.
“I see it,” I say, grinning at my baby.
“Juniper is gorgeous,” Lucia says. “What an angel. You know who’s going to love her? My granddaughter. She loves her cousin Ethan, but…” Lucia waves a hand at my daughter’s curls. “Look at that hair. She’s going to want to play princess and dress-up. I hope you’re ready for playdates and lots of willing babysitters.”
I cover my mouth with my hand to hold back any words that might come out. There’s nothing I can say to this. I can finally see why my aunt was so insistent on my moving here. After everything that happened back in Los Angeles, I believe that I can start over here in Star Falls. When I first found out I was pregnant, I thought my big, exciting life was over. And then, when Juniper’s father made his feelings about the matter clear to me, I thought my life itself was over.
My aunt lifts Junie off the counter while I take the bowl of water and dump the contents down the drain. I’m facing the sink and window when a sexy voice calls into the kitchen.
“Ma, I’m going for real now. See you for dinner.”
I turn to follow the voice and see Vito Bianchi standing in the doorway. The waves of his brown hair have fallen loose from their careful style, and in place of the perfect dress shirt and pants, he’s wearing a pair of dark jeans and a casual cotton button-down.
“Do you really only have one dress shirt?” I blurt out. As soon as I say the words, I shake my head. No freaking filter. I never have had one. “I mean, you look great. I was serious about replacing your shirt and pants. If, you know…” I’m rambling.
Lucia raises up on her tiptoes to kiss her son’s cheek, but over his mother’s shoulder, his eyes are laser-focused on me. “See you, V,” she says. But then Lucia cocks her head as if putting something together in her mind. “Are you going to work? I didn’t think you were on today?”
Vito’s intense chocolate eyes move from mine to his mom. “Ma, it’s something else. I’m meeting with the chief, but it shouldn’t take long. See you for dinner.”
“Vito, are you in trouble? Honey, is everything all right?” She sounds worried, and right away, I pick up on the smallest details in Vito’s reaction.
