A Second Chance (8 page)

Carlos rolled the bottle between his
palms and looked down at it. “She doesn’t want me in her life.
She’d rather have me gone and happy.”

“
But you’re not.”

Carlos sat silent for a moment. “No,
I’m not.”

“
Did you ever think she was
trying to push you away in case something happened to her? She’d
rather have you angry at her than mourn her.”

There were tears stinging Carlos’s
eyes, but he fought them back and took a swig from his
beer.

Zach inched further over the table.
“Listen, Regan did the same thing. Remember Alexander
Hamilton?”

“
You don’t forget the name
of the man who tried to kill your sister.”

“
Once she realized he was
the man I was doing business with, she quit her job and planned to
move away so she wouldn’t hurt me with her past. She figured I was
better off without her.” He shook his head. “What if I would’ve let
her go? What if I would’ve let that asshole’s money mean more than
my love for Regan? I wouldn’t have anything right now. But look,
we’ve been happily married for three years and we have a son. You
know how that feels.”

He did. There was nothing like his
children. The children he and Madeline had created in love were his
life. “I just don’t understand why she won’t let me help
her.”

“
She’s scared.”

Carlos inched his body over the table.
“That’s why she should let me help her.”

“
But she doesn’t want you
unhappy either. She thinks Kathy makes you happy.”

“
She does. Kathy is
wonderful.” The statement was as true as they came.

“
I didn’t say she wasn’t.
But does she really make you happy?

“
Of course she
does.”

“
As happy as Madeline makes
you?”

Carlos rolled the beer bottle between
his hands again and then pushed it away. “If you’re trying to
confuse, me you’re doing a great job.”

“
No, I’m trying to get you
to face something before you make a mistake.” He finished his beer.
“Listen. You need to do what you think is right. And what you think
is right is to take care of Madeline.”

“
You think I should just
butt into her life?”

“
Yeah, I guess that’s what
I’m trying to say. But I also think you’d better give some
consideration as to what you’re going to do with Kathy. Do you
really want to marry her? And if you really do, you need to either
let go of your feelings for Madeline or make sure Kathy understands
them completely. Because no matter how understanding she’s being
right now, sooner or later she’s going to crack.”

Carlos nodded.

“
We’d better get back out
there. Tyler is going to be getting hungry soon, and she’ll want to
head home to feed him.”

Kathy was just closing her bridal
planner when Zach and Carlos returned. Tyler slept peacefully in
his carrier. Carlos watched as his sister’s eyes rose toward her
husband and he smiled at her. She returned the smile, and he knew
in that silent moment they’d had an entire conversation.

Kathy looked up at Carlos. “I think
I’ve decided on the outdoor wedding at Regan and Zach’s. What do
you think?”

“
I think that sounds
beautiful.” He smiled. How could he not? She was absolutely
glowing.

He sat back down next to her, and she
scooted closer to him. “Do you like purple?”

“
Purple is a fine
color.”

“
Great. I think that Clara
would look best in it. She’s so beautiful.” That warmed his heart.
“I’ve asked my sisters to be bridesmaids, and your sisters
too.”

“
Okay.” He picked up the
glass of water that he’d left there when he and Zach had vacated
the table and sipped. “Well, Zach, I guess I’d better ask. Will you
stand up on my side?”

Zach gave him a slow nod. “You know I
would.”

Carlos nodded. He’d ask Curtis and his
boys too.

In that one moment he could see
himself moving on.

Carlos held Kathy’s hand as he
navigated the dark roads single-handed as he’d done thousands of
times. She was full of wildly excited chatter.

“
Regan found a picture of
the most beautiful dresses for the bridesmaids. I think we’ll get
one for Clara that will match. I think it would be nice to have her
be a junior bridesmaid instead of a flower girl. Isn’t she too old
to be a flower girl?” Carlos only shrugged with a grunt, and Kathy
continued. “Regan said Audrey would be a wealth of knowledge when
it comes to caterers. She uses them for everything.”

“
It sounds like you know
exactly what you want.” He glanced her way and gave her a
smile.

“
Every girl dreams of what
she wants from the time she’s little. Of course, I don’t expect you
to dress in a white suit with braided ropes over the
shoulders.”

“
Prince Charming,
eh?”

“
Of course.”

He certainly couldn’t imagine being
someone’s Prince Charming, but he found it refreshing that perhaps
Kathy thought he was. “What else did you always want?”

“
Well…” She sighed,
obviously giving it some thought. “When I was about twenty, one of
my friends from college got married. They set free white
doves.”

“
Doves? What ever happened
to rice?”

“
So you’re more
old-fashioned? Shoe polish on car windows and tin cans strung to
the back of the car?”

“
Oh, yeah.” He laughed.
“When I was little, though, I do remember going to a wedding with
my parents in Puerto Rico.” He focused on the road as Kathy gave
his hand a squeeze. It wasn’t often that he thought of his birth
parents or their family home in Puerto Rico.

They’d brought him to the States when
he was nearly six. They’d become part of the community they lived
in quickly, thanks to the church they’d belonged to. That was where
he met the Keller family for the first time. Regan was his age. The
Kellers had adopted her and Arianna, her older sister, after having
been their foster parents for years. He could still see Regan with
ponytails in a white dress for church the first time he’d ever laid
eyes on her. Mrs. Keller had a little boy in her arms, and he was
sleeping. It was so vivid in his mind.

Emily Keller owned a small bakery with
her parents. She’d given his mother work there. Alan Keller had
helped to employ his father as a handyman. On that snowy December
night, when his parents were killed, it was Emily Keller they
called to the hospital to sit with him. By then, he was seven. The
Kellers immediately took him in. Like Regan and Arianna, he never
left.

The Kellers had only one child that
they’d given birth to, and that was Curtis. But he was not favored
or loved more than the three children that God had given them
through other means.

Carlos gave Kathy’s hand a squeeze
back. He hadn’t had to explain what he was thinking, she
knew.

“
What do you remember about
that wedding?” she asked softly.

“
I remember a plate of
money. The priest would bless it and give it to the husband to give
to the wife. Or something like that. And there was a doll.” He
shook his head. “I don’t really remember why they had a doll
dressed like the bride. First of all, it was a girl thing. Second,
it was a little freaky.” He laughed. “But it had charms on it, and
they gave me one.”

“
Tradition?”

“
I guess so. I was probably
five, so I don’t really remember it very well.”

“
Are most of your memories
of you living with your mom and dad? I mean the
Kellers?”

“
Yeah. I had a grandmother
in Puerto Rico, but I only remember her being old. She was too old
to take care of me. So, when my parents died there wasn’t the
option of her taking me. She’d write to me, and my mom—Emily—would
read them to me. But my grandmother died by the time I was
nine.”

She scooted closer to him so she could
rest her head on his shoulder. “I love your parents. I’m very lucky
to have them for future in-laws.”

“
I couldn’t have gotten any
luckier under the circumstances.”

“
What about Regan and
Arianna. What about their birth parents?”

He gave a shrug of his other shoulder.
“A young couple is all I know. The state took them away from them
when Arianna was two and Regan was only a few months old. So Mom is
really the only mom Regan has ever known, and Arianna doesn’t
remember her birth parents at all.”

“
Do you think Zach and Regan
will have more kids?”

“
Oh, yeah. At least one
more. Regan knows the joy of having siblings.” He shook his head
with a laugh. “Okay, maybe not the joys, but we’re a team. When one
of us needs anything, the other ones are there. We all support
Arianna’s acting dreams. We all helped get Curtis though med
school. When Regan lived in Hawaii with that
guy
”—he couldn’t even say his
name—”we supported her. And when she came back and needed support
physically, mentally, and financially, we were there for
her.”

“
So she would want Tyler to
have that.”

“
I think so. And Zach sees
the importance in it, having been an only child. He was shipped off
to a boarding school in France.”

Kathy lifted her head. “Zach speaks
French?”

“
Yup. It’s funny too. You
don’t expect it, but when his friend Simone calls, it spews from
his lips like it’s his only language.”

“
Hmmm, I still have so much
to learn about my new family.”

Carlos gave a nod as she rested her
head on his shoulder again. Family pulled together in times of
trouble. There hadn’t been a day since he was fifteen he didn’t
think of Madeline as family. Marrying Kathy wouldn’t change that.
He didn’t expect it to. But how could he feel so far from Madeline
now, and need her so much?

Chapter Four

Eduardo stood in the hallway and
listened to the sounds of his mother getting sick in the bathroom.
“Mom, are you okay?” he asked as she threw up for the third time
since he’d awakened.

“
I’m fine, baby,” she said
as he heard her again.

“
I’m worried about you. Let
me call Dad.”

“
Just get ready for school.
You can’t be late.”

He stood there for a few more minutes
with his ear pressed against the door and a pain in his chest that
he didn’t like. His mother was never sick, and he didn’t know what
he could do to help her. So he did as she’d asked and went about
getting his shower and making sure everyone else was ready for
school.

He made breakfast for Christian and
Clara and made his mother a piece of dry toast. When she turned the
corner into the kitchen, he went to her and helped her to a
chair.

“
Eat this.” He set the plate
down in front of her.

She gave it a look of consideration
and then pushed it away. “I don’t think I can.”

“
You’ve lost ten pounds
already. You don’t have a lot to lose. Eat it.”

Madeline nodded as he went back to
packing lunch for Clara. “Thank you guys for being here with me. It
really helps me.” She reached her hand out and covered Christian’s.
He only nodded his head. “So when is your choir
concert?”

“
In two weeks. I have extra
practices next week. I have a note.”

She smiled. “Okay. We’ll make sure you
get there.”

Eduardo handed Clara her lunch. “Okay,
Mom. I made you some soup and it’s in the fridge. You just have to
warm it up. Don’t forget your medicine and get in lots of fluids
today. I’m going to call you between classes, and you’d better
answer.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
We’ll be home by four.” He
bent down to kiss her cheek. “You’re burning up.” He put his hand
to her head. “Mom, how long have you been like this?”

“
Just since this
morning.”

“
But you’ve been throwing up
for three days.”

“
It’s normal.”

“
I’m calling Dad.” He pulled
out the cell phone and she grabbed it from his hands.

“
You will do no such
thing.”

His mother made eye contact with each
of them. “This is normal. I’m okay. I have an appointment to see
the doctor tomorrow. We’ll see what they say. Maybe they can give
me something. But I don’t want you calling your father. Do you hear
me?” She looked directly at Eduardo, who hesitantly nodded.
“Okay.”

“
Why don’t I just stay with
you?” he offered. It was killing him to see her look so
weak.

“
I’d rather you get an
education. And you’d better get to the bus.”

Carlos missed the kids. The mornings
were fuss free, but quiet wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed.
For five years, he’d had the children at his house every other
week. It had only been a few days, but he knew they’d be gone for
weeks. However, with parent-teacher conferences coming up, it was
giving him time to get his reports for each student in
order.