Unwrap My Heart

Capítulo 3

WILLY

The nice thing about living over your mother’s garage was the ability to sneak into her kitchen when your first waking thought was, “Crap, I don’t have any damn coffee.”

As a rule, I preferred to have a couple cups of coffee before doing anything else, but I suspected once my mother got hold of me, she was going to want my company for a while. I showered and dressed, shoving my wallet and key ring in my pocket before going downstairs into the garage. The door to the kitchen had already been unlocked, so she was probably expecting me. Either that or she’d ignored me when I’d told her to start locking it before leaving for California the last time.

Not only was she expecting me, but she set a mug of coffee on the table in front of my usual chair just as I walked into the kitchen.

“Good morning, cariño”

“Morning, Ma.”

I sat and took a bracing gulp of hot coffee.

“And thank you.”

“If you’d called to tell me you were coming home, I would have made sure you had coffee upstairs. And other groceries, too.”

We’d already covered that, so I just nodded and kept drinking. I only put up a token protest when she pulled the big cast iron frying pan free of its hook.

That was the bacon and eggs pan.

“You don’t have to make me breakfast, Ma.”

“Nonsense. It’s so good to have you home, so you can humor your old mother today.”

“I don’t see an old mother in this kitchen. Just a beautiful one.”

She laughed at the line I’d been using on her for as long as I could remember, having been taught by my dad how to flatter her, and pulled bacon out of the fridge.

“What are you going to do today?”

I wrapped my hands around the mug and shrugged.

“I need to hit the grocery store, obviously. And I figure I’ll visit some old stomping grounds and see if I can scrounge up some work.”

“You just got home. Relax for a few days.”

“You know me, Ma. I’m not one for relaxing.”

“You got that from your father. The man couldn’t sit still for five minutes. Always had to be working on something.”

The pang of loss didn’t take me by surprise. It happened every time my dad was mentioned, but I was careful not to let it show. My mother’s mouth was curved in a bittersweet smile, and I knew talking about her husband helped her through the grief.

“So Ma, what’s Ruelle’s story?” I asked, now that we were alone.

“Do you remember when a guy named Armando Garcia was all over the news for misusing and losing millions of dollars of other peoples’ money?”

I shrugged.

“Vaguely. I don’t pay much attention to financial crap.”

“He’s Ruelle’s ex-husband. She grew up wealthy and then married into even more money. But she divorced him and the banks took literally everything. She fought as long as she could, but those kinds of lawyers are expensive.”

If they came from wealth, it explained their manners and the way the kid had set the table.

“Oof” I let out a breath, “That’s one hell of a fall.”