Goldie and I turned to join Hon and his client.
The punk saw Goldie holding Pippa, and it was like he’d laid eyes on a horrible ghost of some kind. Or an alien erupting from someone’s face. He looked pale and terrified. I wondered who on earth could be so afraid of a tiny baby and more importantly why someone could. Or if he was a client of Hon’s, maybe he was simply scared about his trial.
Hon reached out to shake my hand before stepping toward Goldie to fawn over Pippa.
“Weston Wilde, Goldie Banks, this is Nico Salerno,” Hon said absently as he continued to coo at the baby. My stomach flipped, and my ears began to buzz as his words started to click together like puzzle pieces in my head. Hon continued, “Adriana’s brother. He’s here to take custody of Pippa.”
My jaw dropped, and I stared at the man in front of me. He didn’t even look twenty-five years old, and he was so stiff with attitude a strong breeze could knock him over. He was the unlikeliest man in the world to make a decent father for Pippa. This was Adriana’s long-lost brother? The good-for-nothing punk who’d gotten his precious feelings hurt and taken off when he was a kid?
“Like hell,” I growled, reaching over to scoop Pippa and her blankets from Goldie’s arms and hold her to my chest.
Hon’s eyes widened in surprise, and the purple-haired guy—Nico—did the same. Both men and Goldie looked stunned speechless at my reaction. I was usually the perfect citizen. Mister Manners and the town’s friendly doctor. But not this time. Not on the day I buried my friend and was hit with the awful fact of Pippa growing up without her.
There was no way in hell I was letting this stranger take Adriana’s baby girl. If he wanted her, he would have to go through me.
And that little emo dude had no idea what I was capable of when my heart was broken.
I turned to mumble an apology to Goldie before I jerked open the door to my truck, strapped Pippa in the baby car seat as quickly as I could, and peeled out of the lot.
Chapter 3
Nico
I stood there staring at the back of the dark truck as it sped out of the lot.
What the hell had just happened?
I felt like I was in a daze. Like everything that had happened since listening to that voice mail two nights before had been a hallucination. I’d flown in on the red-eye that morning and rented a car to make it to the service just in time. I’d snuck into the back row of the church and just tried to keep my head down. I was still in deep denial about everything.
When the baby’s cries had rung out through the church, I’d jumped, knocking some kind of brass platter to the stone floor in a horrible racket. It felt like the entire group of mourners turned to stare at me. As if I hadn’t already attracted enough attention in the entire town just by showing up.
It had taken every ounce of my courage to return to Hobie after the attorney had given me the details of Adriana’s death the morning before.
Adriana Cristina Salerno. My older sister by three years. The sister I’d tried looking up to before I’d left all those years before but who’d repeatedly let me down.
I’d slunk out of the pew and out the back door of the church. I hadn’t been able to take it anymore. Too many memories of Sunday services, sitting up straight and trying to stay awake during the incessant incantations of the priest’s rituals. I’d sworn to myself I’d never set foot in another church as long as I lived, and up until then, I’d been able to keep that promise.
By the time I’d made it to my rental car in the parking lot, my hands were shaking so hard I would have done anything for a shot of tequila. Instead, I crossed my arms on the frame across the top of the driver’s side door and leaned my forehead against them before letting out a deep sigh.
Only a few minutes later, the attorney had found me and introduced himself, pulling me back toward the churchyard to meet the baby. Adriana’s baby. My sister’s baby.
My baby now.
Well, at least until I could find a way to sign away my rights to her and find her a good set of adoptive parents. Mr. Baptiste had assured me over the phone that there was a wonderful young family ready to adopt her. I just needed to come to town long enough to sign the appropriate paperwork and facilitate the dispensation of the rest of Adriana’s assets, including her house and the bakery she owned in town.
When the attorney had called out to a tall man and older woman, he explained that the older woman was the baby’s current foster parent and the man was the town’s family doctor.