“Exactly. Because you want to be good at your job. It’s the same thing. Everyone has bad days, but sometimes we have to power through.” And get thrown out of a truck, she added silently. Maybe someone yelling at her would be better than getting injured. At least the recovery would be quicker.
“So you’re the power-through type?” he asked.
“Pretty much. I’m decisive.” She smiled. “I might not always make the right decision, but I’m going to make the fast one.”
“Doesn’t that get you in trouble?”
“Sometimes. If it does, I retrace my steps, fix the problem and move on. I’m generally not one to wallow.” Although she supposed a case could be made that she was wallowing about a lot of things lately. Something to think about when she was alone.
She looked at Javiar as he put cheese and fruit on his plate. He was certainly easy to look at, but so far he was also easy to talk to. She had to admit that while in most circumstances like this, she and the man in question went directly to the bedroom to do the deed, she kind of liked hanging out a little first. Not just because she could get to know him but because, well, she’d been a little lonely lately. Her stunt friends were all away on location, and she hadn’t been able to get to her writing critique group since the accident.
“How are you handling all this?” he asked. “The whole Shannon-Cindy revelation?”
“I’m pissed,” she blurted, surprising herself and probably him. “Huh.” She turned the concept over in her mind and found she’d been telling the truth. “Yes,pisseddescribes my emotions really well.”
“Why pissed?” he asked. “I get being surprised or uncomfortable, but angry? Tell me why.”
Before she could point out that her feelings were none of his business, she found herself saying, “I’m the child they didn’t want.”
His gaze sharpened. “What does that mean?”
“They wanted Shannon. They went looking for her. You’ve seen my mom with Cindy. They could be sisters, and Shannon looks just like them. That’s what my mom wanted.” She waved her hand. “She says she wanted a connection and that Cindy looking like her was just a happy coincidence, but come on. If you’re going to adopt a baby, don’t you want it to look a little like you?”
She sipped her Snapple. “They made plans, they did the baby room, they loved her and she was ripped away from them without warning.”
He was watching her as she spoke. “That had to be hard.”
“Right? They were devastated. Then a couple of months later, one of my mom’s maids comes to her. She’s pregnant, her family doesn’t know, and hey, did my mom and dad want her kid? Voilà. Problem solved.”
“But?”
“But they didn’t want me. I was the genericOh well, we can’t have the child we love, so we’ll take this one. You know that’s how it was. They didn’t want me specifically. They were willing to take me because it solved a problem. And for my mom, it was too soon. She didn’t want me and didn’t love me for a long time.”
“You were a baby. You can’t know that.”
“Trust me, I know it.”
He shook his head. “You weren’t the child they didn’t want. To them, you would have been like a gift from God.”
She snorted. “They’re really not God people.”
“We’re all God’s people.”
She eyed him. “Is this you being funny?”
“A little.”
“And who are you in all this?”
“Cindy worked for my parents.”
“Right. She was friends with your mom, and then your mom died.” She paused. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
“It was. For all of us. My mom was amazing.” He smiled as if remembering her. “She always took the extra step. Everyone loved her. I was nine when we met Cindy, so that was maybe fifteen years ago. I was with my mom at the bank. I don’t know why. Maybe school got out early or something. Anyway we were standing in line, and Cindy was in front of us. Suddenly she fainted. My mom helped catch her, then talked to her, wanting to know what was wrong.”
He looked at Victoria. “My mom had a way of getting people to tell her the truth. She fainted because she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten in a couple of days.”
“Why not?”
