Besides, he had his own problem looming: Oriane would be arriving tomorrow. They had this one day to prepare.
Knowing that his parents retired early for preference, and that the east coast was three hours later than the west coast, Alejo had waited for morning to call Godiva and Rigo. Sitting in his quiet room, he called them.
The result could have been predicted. Godiva’s happy squawk nearly obliterated his phone’s speakers, and he wondered if the sound echoed all over the house.
Once he’d dealt with all their questions by repeating what had happened, and then adding “I don’t know yet,” several times in a row, he ended after promising them another report as soon as Oriane arrived.
Godiva said before they hung up, “Part of me wants to get in gear and fly out there as fast as I can. But I suspect that more people for this kid to deal with right off the bat might be a bummer. In fact, the three of you being alone there is groovy…”
‘Groovy.’ Alejo hadn’t heard that one since he was a teenager. Alejo suppressed a snort. Godiva was so excited that she was letting her inner hippie slip.
She let him go after a few more exhortations like that. Rigo didn’t say much, but Alejo could hear the genuine delight in his father’s voice when he said, “Good luck, son. Go make up for lost time.”
Alejo hung up, reflecting on how he, too, had lost his father until his teen years, through a sad set of mischances.
By the time he’d showered and dressed, he found both Wendy and Sam in the kitchen, Wendy wearing a bathrobe, and looking a bit unnerved, but there was her bright smile as soon as he walked in.
Wendy had been cooking waffles, which had Sam overjoyed. It was clear from his piping babble that a Saturday that began with waffles was the pinnacle of coolness.
Alejo sensed Wendy waiting for the right moment, which he let her pick. As he cut into a fluffy waffle, the sense of unreality intensified. In a little over a week, he’d gone from accustoming himself to the single life to suddenly finding himself with a family. Which meant a crash course in parenting.
He kept looking at Wendy. Along the mate bond he sensed her waiting. For? Ah—she wanted a good meal inside thin little Sam. Then she said, “Sam, Alejo and I have something to tell you. A new person is going to come stay with us tomorrow.”
Sam’s eyes rounded and he stiffened. “Who?”
“It turns out that Alejo has a daughter. Her name is Oriane. She’s a little older than you.”
“Oh,” Sam said, and under his breath, “it’s nothim.”
Wendy’s eyes flew to Alejo’s.He meant Bill,came her thought, as clear as if she had spoken.
Though Alejo thoroughly disliked everything he’d heard about Bill, and the emotional damage Wendy had been dealing with made him furious, he was surprised by a spurt of pity for the guy, that his own kid was relieved he was not coming back to live with Sam. But the pity vanished with the next thought: he’d earned it. Kids wanted to love their parents. It took a lot of bad choices to grind that down to total indifference.
Sam looked from his mother to Alejo. “Mom has one kid, and Alejo has one kid,” he said in a speculative voice. But his gaze remained on Alejo. “You aren’t married.”
“No. Not yet,” Alejo said, wondering where this was going. And, was every milestone in his life going to happen backwards?
He stole a look at Wendy, who had telltale pinkness in her cheeks, but she kept her attention on Sam as the boy said, “Then how can you have a kid?”
Panic! How to answerthatwithout due preparation and practice?
Alejo turned to Wendy, who said calmly, “Due to a mix-up, it turns out that Alejo is her dad, not someone else. You saw on the phone yesterday, Sam. Oriane is a…a shifter, just like Alejo is. That’s how we are pretty sure they are father and daughter. But everything about shifters is a secret we have to keep, okay?”
“Iknowthat,” Sam said, clearly disappointed that there wasn’t a hope that he was the result of a mix-up. The idea had been too new to really upset him. “I’mgoodat secrets.” He glanced toward the garden. “Squeak and Rocky and Ratty trust me!”
Alejo said, “Shall we let Rocky and the others decide if they want Oriane to know about them or not?”
Sam’s skinny shoulders lowered a full inch. “Yes,” he breathed. “They might still want to be a secret.”
“Okay. We won’t say anything about them until they’re ready. But we’ll try to welcome Oriane in every other way. How’s that?”
“Yes,” said Sam. “I can help?”
“Of course you can,” Wendy said. “You’re an important part of this team. There might be things that only another kid might know.”
Alejo said, “When you get done with your questions, we can get busy on our work at the house. In a few days, do you want to ask Oriane if she wants to join us?”
Sam’s gaze zapped to Alejo. “I can still build with you? Even if now you’ve got a kid that belongs to you?”
