Chapter 29

Ricci

“You weren’t kidding about your books,” I grumble at Manny, who’s standing in the doorway of his office.

For the past week, ever since our first date, I’ve been coming to the shop after I’m done at the diner. While he has a computer program that will track receipts and also do print outs of his sales, splitting them between cash and card transactions, he seldom uses it.

“I told you, babe, that paperwork and I are not friends,” he teases. “Do you want to take a break and go eat at the diner? I’ve got about two hours before the next client comes in.”

“That sounds wonderful,” I reply, just as my stomach rumbles, causing me to blush.

He’s laughing as we leave the shop once he has everything locked up. Taking my hand in his, we start walking to the diner, only to stop when we see Marisol heading in our direction. She looks a bit distraught, which I can tell has Manny gearing up for mayhem.

Just like Papa B would’ve done for his girls. That thought has me smiling slightly as she reaches us, wringing her hands together. “Um, can we… can we talk?” she asks.

I can see she’s unsure what to call him, which is totally understandable given the circumstances.

“Absolutely. We’re going to the diner, would you like to join us?” he questions. “Oh, and this is Ricci, my girlfriend.”

The spark of hope and happiness that’s been steadily building since our first date flares to life. True to his word, he’s been letting me set the pace of our relationship, which I appreciate more than I can express.

“Hello, Marisol,” I reply, holding out my hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Um, hi,” she says, running her hands through her hair. It’s something I’ve seen Manny do countless times and I find it endearing that she has some of his habits despite just finding out he was her father. “That, yeah, that’s fine.”

“Then lead the way,” he says. She turns and we fall in line, silence surrounding us.

I wonder what’s going on to cause her distress, then realize if things go the way I hope they do, I will be her stepmother someday. That means, I need to foster a relationship of some sort with her.

Once we’re in the diner and settled in a booth with her setting across from us, Manny reaches out and takes her hand in his. “What’s going on, Marisol? Why are you so upset?”

“My mom hasn’t been home for a few days,” she murmurs, looking around to make sure no one is listening.

“What do you mean? Have you been by yourself all this time?” Manny questions. I can feel his anger boiling beneath the surface, but he’s holding it back so he doesn’t scare his daughter.

“She came home from the fair the other night really angry. Said she was going to fight you in court or something. Then the next morning, she went to work and hasn’t been home since.”

“A week? It’s been a week, baby?” he asks, his voice now soothing since Marisol looks freaked out. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“Because… because she does that sometimes. She takes off and leaves me by myself for a few days. So, I didn’t worry or anything because it’s happened before. But today, when I got home from school, there was a message on the answering machine from her boss.”

“What did it say?” I ask, instinctively knowing that Manny’s trying to keep his cool at the fact such a young girl has been left to her own devices for a week.

“That because she hadn’t shown up for work and hadn”t called, she was fired,” she whispers, looking at her hands. “I think… I think something must have happened, but if it did, why didn’t anyone call me? She only ever took off and left me on the weekends unless she had to go in to work a Sunday shift.”

“We’ll find out what’s going on, Marisol. In the meantime, I think you should come stay at the farm,” Manny decrees. “I don’t want you by yourself. It’s not safe. Now, let’s get something to eat, then we’ll go back to the shop, and I’ll make some calls, okay?”

“Okay.”

* * *

Manny ended up canceling his appointment so he could take the route he thought Leanna would take to work. Meanwhile, I have her with me and we’re shopping for things for what’s going to be her room out at the farmhouse.

As we meander through the bedding department, I softly say, “I was in foster care from the time I was a little girl until I aged out of the system.”

Her shocked eyes stare at me and it’s like looking at the man I’m slowly falling in love with, one I can’t imagine not being in my life. “Really? What happened that made you go into foster care?”

“My parents died in a car accident. I was in a lot of different homes before I was moved to the Billingsleys’ house.”

“Were they nice?” she asks, having stopped in the middle of the aisle to listen to me.

I smile in remembrance. “Yeah. At first, I was a little shit, not gonna lie, because so many of the homes I’d been placed at weren’t very nice and I was picked on a lot. But they were patient with me, and I grew to love them as if they were my parents.”

“Why didn’t they just adopt you?”

“There was an aunt, I don’t remember whose side of the family she was on, but while she wasn’t physically capable of taking me in, she was unwilling to let me be adopted,” I reply. “But Mama and Papa B treated me as if I was their little girl.”

“They sound nice,” she replies. Her wistful tone has me glancing at her, so many questions on the tip of my tongue.

I want to know what her life was like growing up. Was Leanna a hands-on mom or was she neglectful? Based on the little Marisol shared when we were at lunch, I feel as though it was the latter, which is a crying shame in my opinion.

“They really were. I have two sisters and a brother because of them.” At her shocked expression, I giggle. “Well, I don’t think Stanley really claims me as his sister, but Ivy and Lacie do, that’s for sure. As far as they’re concerned, I’m theirs even though there’s no official paperwork.”

“What does that have to do with me?” she inquires, now looking at a really pretty comforter set.

Despite her nonchalance, I can tell she’s worried about what’s happening with her mother. Plus, she really doesn’t know Manny all that well. Taking a deep breath, I reply, “I don’t have a good feeling about things, Marisol. I know you said your mom would leave you for a few days from time to time, which I’m not crazy about by the way, but with it being a week? I think maybe something happened. I hope I’m wrong because girls need their moms.”

“If something bad did happen to her, what happens to me?” she whispers, a lone tear tracking down her face.

“Well, I know you know that Manny is your father already. So I suspect you’d go to live with him.”

“My dad didn’t like me.” At my look, she clarifies what she means. “My mom’s husband, that is. I’ve known for a long time that he wasn’t my real father. He’s got blond hair and blue eyes, and so does my mother. I look nothing like him, or even her for that matter. Not sure what she was thinking.”

Since I don’t want her to have bad thoughts where her mom is concerned, despite my own feelings about her, I shake my head. “I think she was thinking she was a seventeen-year-old girl who just found out she was pregnant and her boyfriend, the father, was going to prison. Being that young, she likely didn’t think she had any other options. The important thing is, you know who your dad is now, and you’ve got a huge, loving family waiting to welcome you into the fold.”

I might not like Leanna because of how she did Manny, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’d have been there for his little girl who isn’t so little anymore. She’s on the cusp of womanhood; a beautiful girl with a somewhat troubling childhood from the sound of things. I’m sure once Manny’s family ‘officially’ meets her, she’s going to be surrounded by the love she’s gone without, and I find myself wanting that for her.

“So, what do you think of this one?” she asks, changing the subject.

Looking at the pattern she found, I grin. “I like it. Do you think he’ll let us paint the room you’re going to use? Maybe some complimentary colors to make the comforter set pop?”

“I hope so,” she says, grinning at me as she grabs the set and puts it in the cart. “What else?”

“Well, I think the room has its own bathroom, so how about some new linens, maybe a shower curtain and all the matching accessories?” I ask.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

* * *

We’re on the way out to the farmhouse, the back of my SUV loaded down with bags. Because once we outfitted the bathroom, we looked at paint colors and picked up a few samples just in case. Plus, we grabbed the snack things and drinks she likes since I know it’s highly unlikely Manny keeps that kind of thing around. He tends to eat healthy most of the time, but teenage girls need their junk food, especially during that time of the month.

When my phone rings, I see it’s Manny and I answer saying, “You’re on speaker.”

“Where are y’all at?” he asks, not giving anything away in his tone.

“Headed out to your house,” I reply. “We probably went a little bit overboard.” However, when he pulled out his card along with a wad of cash, he told me to spend whatever I wanted as long as she got what she needed.

Now sounding distracted, he says, “That’s okay. I need y’all to come back into town to the police department.”

I hear Marisol gasp beside me and reach out to grip her hand in mine. “We’ll be there shortly.”

Disconnecting the call, I look for a driveway to turn around in, only to hear a slight sniffle. Once I get us headed back to town, I grab her hand again and say, “We’re not going to borrow trouble. It may be something, it may be nothing, but your dad and I are by your side.”

* * *

Tears stream down my face as I watch Manny console his daughter. He was waiting outside for us when we pulled in and once I parked and shut the SUV down, he was at the passenger side pulling Marisol into his arms. I followed behind them as he led us into the police department then toward a little room off to the side.

There, we found out why Leanna hadn’t been home for a week. It seems that she lost control of her car and went off the road. Because of the heavy foliage, her vehicle wasn’t seen by anyone until Manny went driving around looking to see if he could find anything. She was found dead in her car, but right now, it’s unknown if she died due to the injuries she sustained or if she lingered for a few days.

Personally, as awful as it sounds, I hope like hell she died on impact. Nobody should have to suffer what I know my own parents suffered. Both sets of them. I’m lost in my thoughts of everything that needs to be done when I hear him say, “Come on, let me get my girl home.”

As we walk out, I head to my SUV while they go to his truck. Since he doesn’t say anything, I figure he wants to be alone with her, so I get in and head home, refusing to cry because he never once really glanced in my direction.

“It’s not about you, Ricci,” I mutter to myself as I pull behind the shop and park. Once I gather the items I purchased, I lock up my SUV then head inside. “I’ll just send him a text later.”