Lee McClain - The Soldier's Secret Child

“Neither one of us will be able to live there,” Nonna said, her voice small.

Lacey’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and he could feel the same expression on his own face. “What do you mean?”

“Now, don’t be angry, either of you,” she said, grasping his hand, “but I rented out the house.”

“You what?”

“When did you do that?” Lacey sounded bewildered.

“We signed the papers yesterday when you were out grocery shopping,” Nonna said, looking everywhere but at Vito and Lacey.

“Who’d you rent it to?” If it had just been finalized yesterday, surely everything could be revoked once the situation was explained. Lacey hadn’t said anything about cognitive problems, but Nonna was in her early eighties. Maybe she wasn’t thinking clearly.

Nonna smiled and clasped her hands together. “The most lovely migrant family,” she said. “Three children and another on the way, and they’re hoping to find a way to settle here. I gave them a good price, and they’re going to keep the place up and do some repairs for me.”

“Nonna...” Vito didn’t know where to begin. He knew that this was the way things worked in his hometown—a lot of bartering, a lot of helping out those in need. “You aren’t planning to stay here at the guesthouse indefinitely, right? How long of a lease did you sign?”

“Just a year.” She folded her hands on top of her blanket and smiled.

“A year?” Not wanting to yell at his aged grandma, Vito stood and ran his hands through his hair. “Either you’re going to have to revoke it, or I’m going to have to find another place for you and me to live.” Never mind how he’d afford the rent. Or the fact that he’d named Nonna’s house as his permanent residence in all the social services paperwork.

“No, dear. I have it all figured out.” She took Lacey’s hand in hers, and then reached toward him with her other hand. Once she had ahold of each of them, she smiled from one to the other. “Vito, if Lacey agrees, you can stay here.”

No. She wasn’t thinking clearly. “Nonna, that’s not going to work. Lacey made this arrangement with you, not with me.” And certainly not with the other guest he had in tow. No way could Lacey find out the truth about Charlie.

“But Lacey was thinking of getting another boarder for this period while she’s remodeling. It’s hard to find the right one, because of all the noise.” Lacey started to speak, but Nonna held up a hand. “The noise doesn’t bother me. I can just turn down my hearing aid.”

Vito knew what was coming and he felt his face heat. “Nonna...”

“Vito’s perfect,” she said, looking at Lacey, “because he can do the same thing.”

Lacey’s eyebrows lifted as she looked at him.

No point in trying to hide his less visible disability now. “It’s true,” he said, brushing back his hair to show his behind-the-ear hearing aids. “But that doesn’t mean you have to take us in.” In fact, staying here was the last thing that would work for him.

He’d promised Gerry he’d take care of his son, conceived during the affair Gerry had while married to Lacey. And he’d promised to keep Charlie’s parentage a secret from Lacey.

He was glad he could help his friend, sinner though Gerry had been. Charlie needed a reliable father figure, and Lacey needed to maintain her illusions about her husband. It would serve no purpose for her to find out the truth now; it would only hurt her.

Lacey frowned. “I was looking to take in another boarder. I was thinking of maybe somebody who worked the three-to-eleven shift at the pretzel factory. They could come home and sleep, and they wouldn’t be bothered by my working on the house at all hours.”

“That makes sense,” he said, relieved. “That would be better.”

“But the thing is,” she said slowly, “I haven’t found anyone, even though I’ve been advertising for a couple of weeks. If you wanted to...”

Anxiety clawed at him from inside. How was he supposed to handle this? He could throttle Gerry for putting him into this situation. “I... There are some complications. I need to give this some thought.” He knew he was being cryptic, but he needed time to figure it all out.

Unfortunately, Nonna wasn’t one to accept anything cryptic from her grandchildren. “What complications? What’s going on?”

Vito stood, then sat back down again. Nonna was going to have to know about Charlie soon enough. Lacey, too, along with everyone else in town. It would seem weirder if he tried to hide it now. “The thing is,” he said, “I’m not alone. I have someone with me.”

“Girlfriend? Wife?” Lacey sounded extremely curious.

Nonna, on the other hand, looked disappointed. “You would never get married without letting your nonna know,” she said, reaching up to pinch his cheek, and then pulling her hand back, looking apologetic. It took him a minute to realize that she’d hesitated because of his scars.

“One of my finished rooms is a double,” Lacey said thoughtfully. “But I don’t know what your...friend...would think of the mess and the noise.”

This was going off the rails. “It’s not a girlfriend or wife,” he said.

“Then who?” Nonna smacked his arm in a way that reminded him of when he’d been small and misbehaving. “If not a woman, then who?”

Vito drew in a breath. “Actually,” he said, “I’ve recently become certified as a foster parent.”

Both women stared at him with wide, surprised eyes.

“So I’d be bringing along my eight-year-old foster son.”

He was saved from further explanation by a crash, followed by the sound of shattering glass and running feet.

Chapter Two

Lacey raced out of Nonna’s bedroom, leaving Vito to reassure the older woman. A quick scan of the hall revealed the breakage: her ceramic rooster lay in pieces on the floor.

One of the kids, probably; they were all sugared up on wedding cake and running around. She hurried to get a broom and dustpan, not wanting any of the remaining wedding guests to injure themselves. As she dropped the colorful pieces into the trash, she felt a moment’s regret.

More important than the untimely demise of her admittedly tacky rooster, she wondered about Vito fostering a child. That, she hadn’t expected.

“Miss Lacey!” It was little Mindy, Sam Hinton’s daughter. “I saw who did that!”

“Did you? Stay back,” she warned as she checked the area for any remaining ceramic pieces.

“Yes,” Mindy said, “and he’s hiding under the front porch right now!”

Behind her, Lacey heard Vito coming out of Nonna’s bedroom, then pausing to talk some more, and a suspicion of who the young criminal might be came over her. “I’ll go talk to him,” she said. “It wasn’t Xavier, was it?”

“No. It was a kid I don’t know. Is he going to get in trouble?”

“I don’t think so, honey. Not too much trouble, anyway. Why don’t you go tell your dad what happened?”

“Yeah! He’s gotta know!” As Mindy rushed off to her important task, Lacey walked out of the house and stood on the porch, looking around. The remaining guests were in the side yard, talking and laughing, so no one seemed to notice her.

She went down the steps and around to the side of the house where there was an opening in the latticework; she knew because she’d had to crawl under there when she’d first found Mrs. Whiskers, hiding with a couple of kittens. When she squatted down, she heard a little sniffling sound that touched her heart. Moving aside the branches of a lilac bush, breathing in the sweet fragrance of the fading purple flowers, she spoke into the darkness. “It’s okay. I didn’t like that rooster much, anyway.”

There was silence, and then a stirring, but no voice. From the other side of the yard, she could hear conversations and laughter. But this shaded spot felt private.