CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tommaso
“Is she gone?” I asked Portia as I sat in the kitchen on the floor with my back against the island cupboards. I held the banana for my pig as she munched it greedily.
Portia didn’t respond; she just made louder chewing noises as she ignored my escalating anxiety and thought only about herself.
Seeing Danica again didn’t bring me anything but joy, and having her there when Vincent’s lawyer showed up, rattled me at first. Then her hand in mine calmed me.
I considered myself a rather mild-mannered person—except when someone as rude as that asshole stepped onto my property, spoke about my wife the way he did, and challenged the legitimacy of my son’s inheritance. Then, I saw red.
But Danica’s hand in mine, and having her there, kept me from doing something I’d ultimately regret.
Until the lawyer left and we were still there on the porch—alone—and holding hands.
She sent me off to eat, which I definitely needed to do, but having someone be concerned for me was such a foreign concept after all these years that my brain didn’t know how to react. So it freaked out.
And now I sat on the kitchen floor, doing everything I could to keep a full-on panic attack at bay.
Portia finished her banana and seemed to finally understand that I needed her. So she sat down beside me and leaned her head against my shoulder. I craned my neck and kissed her between the ears.
The more time I spent with Danica, the more time I wanted to spend with her. And when I wasn’t with her, she was all I thought about.
Having her there with me last night, as we said goodbye to Angel and reassured Midnight that he wasn’t alone, meant more to me than I think she realized.
Could I have done it myself? Sure. I did everything else on this property on my own.
But I was glad that I didn’t have to. It was nice to share the heavy weight of grief with someone else, as well as the joy of watching little Midnight rally and take his first wobbly steps.
She wasn’t pushy either. She seemed almost as unsure and hesitant about our circumstances as I did. However, like today on the porch, I saw glimpses of an unimaginable strength. The strength of a woman who left an abusive relationship, and now raised her daughter on her own.
I knew what it was like to raise a child by yourself, and it was no easy task. And to have that child be one like Sam—with anxiety, self-esteem issues, and who was being bullied—had to take a toll on Danica.
Portia nudged my chin with her snout and snorted, inching closer to me. Her warmth and the weight of her chin on my shoulder helped keep the chaotic thoughts from getting too out of control.
I really did need to eat something. I’d been so busy mucking stalls, taking care of Midnight, and then moving Angel’s body and digging her grave that I had completely forgotten to eat. As well as shower, but I’d do that later.
Still on my ass, I inched over to the fridge and yanked open the door, digging around in the crisper for an apple. I grabbed two, because no way could I eat an apple and not offer one to the princess.
My pig and I sat on the floor eating our apples, and the rush of sugar through my bloodstream helped push those last sticky strands of panic out of the corners of my mind.
“One more minute,” I told Portia, handing her my apple core.
By the time I climbed off the floor, I felt a lot better.
I had a glass of water, since I also hadn’t had anything to drink today, and headed back out to the barn.
Both their vehicles were still there, and I found Francesca and Sam in the same stall, brushing Monarch while Cameron was lecturing Pinata about the importance of not biting other animals’ tails. I couldn’t find Danica though.
“If you’re looking for my mom, she’s in the stall with Midnight and Raven,” Sam said, giving Monarch a kiss on his thick, gray neck. He turned around and gave her hair a lick, which made her giggle.
I nodded at her, heat filling my cheeks as I made my way to the end of the barn where, sure enough, there was Danica, sitting on the floor—just like she had last night—with Midnight on her lap.
Raven seemed okay with the situation and was happily chewing on hay.
Midnight’s eyes were closed, his head on her stomach, legs flopped out to one side, as she hummed softly to him and stroked the star on his forehead.
I stood there in the doorway of the stall for a moment, just watching her, taking it all in.
She came here asking for my help with her kid, which I didn’t hesitate to agree to despite my immediate attraction to her.
However, in such a short span of time, she’d given me more than I could ever give her.
I shifted a little, and she must have noticed me out of the corner of her eye. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled. “Did you eat something? More than half a banana?”
“I had an apple.”
Her frown was cute. “That’s not substantial enough.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“So, I called Gabrielle, and she’s happy to take a look at any paperwork the lawyers may have given you.
She’s also got some great real estate and estate lawyer referrals that she’ll give you as well.
And she suggested we reach out to the Island Elders Council.
Since land on the island has to be passed down to any willing family members before it can be sold, they’ll know your wife’s parents and whether your father-in-law’s sister has any claim to the land. ”
I nodded again. I hated people knowing my business.
I was a private person and liked it that way.
It took a lot for me to even put my name in the hat for Bonn Remmen’s land, but I did because just a week before, Vincent and his mother knocked on my door and told me that if Guiseppe didn’t live here, then I had no right to. And I panicked.
A cute, crooked smile lifted her mouth. “You need to take the help that’s being offered, Tom.
I know you’re a private person. Trust me, my cousins and I are too.
When the truth about our pasts came out, we weren’t happy about it.
We’ve flown under the radar for a while on the island, but at the end of the day, our pasts aren’t our fault, and we’re not going to be ashamed of them.
The island is a tight-knit community full of people who love thy neighbor and will do whatever they can to help.
” Her smile grew a little. “Let thy neighbors love you.”
That made me smirk.
“Have you even met your neighbors?”
“Well, one side is Bonn Remmen, and I only met him once before he died, when Pinata first arrived and ran away from me as I tried to get him into the barn. Bonn found him eating his radishes.”
She rolled her eyes and grinned. “Of course he did.”
“And I haven’t met the others. They keep to themselves. Which I like.”
Her brows knitted. “Yeah, I don’t actually know who’s on the other side of you either, come to think of it.”
“Who’s on the other side of who?” Cameron asked, coming to stand beside me in the door of the stall.
“Do you know who’s on the other side of Tom’s property?” Danica asked. “Not Bonn’s side, obviously, but the other side?”
Cameron squinted his honey-colored eyes for a moment, thinking. “I think it’s actually Otto and Brenda Pickford.” He nodded more emphatically. “Yeah, actually, that’s right. It is Otto.”
Danica made a face like she had just bitten into a stale bomboloni. “Ugh. That asshole.”
“Who is ‘that asshole’?” I asked. “Should I send Pinata over there to terrorize them on purpose? Eat their radishes?”
Both Cameron and Danica snorted.
“It’s the principal at the kids’ school,” Cameron said. “He’s a horrible administrator. Should have retired ages ago. Very old school ideologies. Doesn’t believe in mental health. Thinks kids with anxiety are troublemakers and disruptors.”
Color filled Danica’s cheeks, and she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. “We’ve had words.”
“I think he’s had words with most parents on the island who give two shits about their kids,” Cameron added.
“When I told him that Francesca was having a hard time leaving me, because she thought something bad might happen to me while we were apart, he said kids today were too soft and that was due to soft parents with soft heads.”
My jaw dropped.
“I’m sorry, but my daughter’s mother died in a fucking building collapse the day after we adopted her from China when she was a baby.
And she’s been on me—for years—to tell her what happened to her mother, so when I finally—delicately—told her, she started to think that something bad might happen to me next.
We’re working on those fears with her counselor.
But Otto standing at the front door, tapping his foot and glaring at his watch as I walk my daughter to class rather than boot her out at the drop-off spot, or make her take the bus, is not compassionate.
Then he tells us that we’re late, and maybe if we got our acts together earlier in the morning, we wouldn’t disrupt everyone else with our tardiness. ”
“Should I release all the donkeys?” I asked, my blood on the verge of boiling. “I can find some goats to ruin their garden.”
“I’m sorry Cesca is struggling so much, Cameron,” Danica said. “That’s so tough.”
Cameron’s head bobbed. “It’s getting better.
She realizes that I’m not going to die while she’s at school, and that it’s okay for us to be apart.
But I tell you, there were some really tough mornings for a while.
Like, I couldn’t take a shit with the door closed because she was worried I’d die on the toilet. ”
I raked my fingers through my hair and shook my head.
A while back, Cameron had confided in me about his wife’s death and how tough it’d been on him to have this infant daughter he’d just met.
He was grieving and hadn’t bonded with Francesca yet, and he worried that all of that had contributed to her anxiety now.