Mediterranean Men & Marriage. Raye Morgan

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      “Coming right up,” Shayna said with a reassuring wink. “Let’s all go in and see about it.”

      Eddie didn’t want to let go of Marco’s slacks, which made walking a bit awkward, but once inside, Shayna was able to coax him away with a huge chocolate chip cookie and a cartoon DVD in the player. She served milk with the cookies and they left the youngsters in the front room with the entertainment.

      “He’s such a duck,” she whispered to Marco as he followed her into the kitchen. “But he hasn’t said a word since his father went missing last month. I think he must be transferring the attachment to you.”

      “Pop psychology,” he muttered, glancing back into the room where the kids were. “What happened to his father?”

      “Went overboard on a fishing trip.” She shrugged, then added as an aside, “Though rumor has it he’s AWOL on purpose. Who knows?”

      Marco looked at the little guy with a larger measure of sympathy after hearing that. A moment later, as he lowered his long body to sit on the rattan couch in the front room, Eddie shot up beside him and sat very close, little legs out straight, as though trying to copy whatever he did.

      Shayna watched, touched at the scene. Marco hadn’t gone out of his way to cultivate Eddie when he’d been here before, but the boy had been fascinated by him from the first. She was glad to see that Marco wasn’t trying to fend him off. Poor Eddie was having a rough time of it with his father missing and his mother gone trying to get work wherever she could.

      And so was Jilly. She had a lot of sympathy for the girl and what she was going through. Losing a parent when one was just beginning to learn what life as an adult was all about was rough. She knew from experience, though for her it had been a little different. Her mother and brother had died in a car accident when she was about Jilly’s age. Instead of having to take over the family chores and babysitting responsibilities, she’d been drafted into providing emotional support for her father. If her mother had lived, would she have gone down that glittery yellow brick road she took into her twenties? She hardly thought so. If her brother had been there to help deflect some of the intense influence from her father, would she have been a more normal adult? She had no doubt of it. She’d missed them both so much; they still haunted her dreams.

      “Is your mom working at the hotel today?” Shayna asked Jilly.

      Jilly looked up and nodded. “She’s going in after lunch. She likes to work there. Sometimes people give her tips.” A look of alarm came over her face. “Oh! We better go back. She’s probably looking for us now.”

      As she turned toward her little brother, Eddie’s little hand shot out and curled around the seam of Marco’s slacks again, fingers digging in.

      “Eddie! We have to go home.” She tried to pry his fingers off the fabric, but the little boy’s face was set with determination. “Oh, Eddie!” she wailed.

      “Here.” Marco put his hand out, palm up, in front of the boy. He looked down at him and smiled, this time with genuine warmth. “We’ll make a deal,” he said.

      Eddie looked at him, then at his hand, but didn’t take the bait. His dark eyes were watchful, but unforgiving.

      “Come on,” Marco said gently. “We have to shake on it.”

      Eddie’s questioning gaze looked at Shayna, then back at Marco. Tentatively, he put out his left hand.

      “Nope,” Marco said firmly. “The other hand. Come on.”

      Eddie’s little face was pained. Slowly, almost undetectably, his fingers began to loosen their hold on the pants.

      “I’m going to promise you something,” Marco told him. “Shayna and I have to go on a trip around the island, but we’ll be back tonight.”

      His hand finally slid off the fabric and landed in Marco’s, looking small and vulnerable there. Marco turned his own hand and enveloped the little one so that they were shaking.

      “We’ll be back,” he said, looking earnestly into Eddie’s face.

      Alarm bells rang in his head the moment the words were out of his mouth. It was so easy to make promises to little kids. And so easy to break them. He knew that from his own childhood. How many times had he waited at the tall windows in his mother’s house, hoping and praying that his father would show up for his visitation day? And how often had his prayers been answered?

      No, if he made this promise to this boy, he had to keep it. No matter what.

      “We’ll be back,” he said firmly, “and I’ll bring you a red licorice whip. Okay?”

      Eddie’s face lit up and for a second, it almost looked as though he were going to say something. But the moment faded as quickly as it had begun, and there was no sound from the child. Still, he pumped hands with Marco. They had a deal.

      Shayna watched this whole scene, entranced. Not matter what, Marco was great with little kids. She smiled at the handshake gimmick, but the smile froze when he mentioned the licorice whip.

      Wait a minute. How had he remembered that Eddie was a fool for red licorice? He couldn’t have just plucked that out of the air…could he?

      Who knew? Maybe he had. But she kept thinking about the day, a few weeks ago, when they’d stopped in at the little general store for supplies, and Marco had casually picked up a package of red licorice for Eddie. His gift had been received with a rapture that had surprised and pleased him. Could he be starting to remember things? Could that reaction from Eddie have stayed with him when nothing else had? It didn’t seem logical.

      They waved goodbye to the children from the front porch, and then Shayna gave him a sideways smile. “You were sweet to Eddie. He needs a good male role model.”

      “Whoa,” Marco said quickly. “I’m not a role model.”

      “Maybe not,” she said with a sigh. “But poor Leila can’t do it all by herself. She tries to get all the work she can, especially at the hotel, and Jilly tries hard to be a good babysitter. But she gets distracted and Eddie takes off on his chubby little legs. The next thing we know, there’s Eddie showing up at the hotel or wherever Leila is working that day. They have to watch him like a hawk.”

      Marco tilted his head, considering that little story and taking it to heart. “Well, you can’t blame him, poor little guy. After all, with his father missing, I’m sure he’s scared he’ll lose his mom, too. So he takes off after her, just to be sure she comes home.”

      She shrugged. “I suppose so.”

      He sighed and turned to her.

      “Where the hell am I going to find red licorice?” he asked distractedly. “Do you suppose anyone has it here?”

      She smiled, feeling a small flutter of relief. It didn’t seem that his memory was coming back after all. “Don’t worry, we’ll find some. I’ll help.”

      They went back into the house and she headed for her bedroom to change for the island trip. She took off the pareau with regret. She probably wouldn’t get to wear that again for another year at least. Any moment now, she would start expanding at the waistline.

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