Then there was Sammy who got used to having Enrico around. She kept asking why he didn't come over and why he couldn't stay. Mitch just told her he was busy at the café. She didn't question that explanation, but she knew something was off.
That morning Mitch was thinking of making her pancakes to cheer her up. He was just about to pull out the ingredients when he heard a light, rhythmic knock on the door. Enrico didn't knock like that, but Mitch still couldn't help hoping that it was him.
Opening the front door, he found Stella standing there in a cutoff shirt and running shorts with her hair up in a ponytail. She looked good, but Mitch didn't spend any time enjoying the sight. He was busy making sure that she wouldn't think he had any intention of inviting her in. To give her a strong hint, he stepped out to talk to her.
"I was just going for a run, and I dropped by to thank you again for letting me stay over," she said with a bright smile.
"Sure. No problem and thank you for breakfast," Mitch told her, measuring his tone carefully so he didn't sound too eager to do it again.
"Daddy?" Sammy called out from inside. She was probably wondering who he was talking to.
"We have a visitor," Mitch told her.
Sammy couldn't tell who it was so she eagerly ran over. "Rico?" she exclaimed then her face fell on seeing Stella just outside the door. "Hi, Gloria's aunt."
"Hi, sweetie pie. Just call me Stella," she said leaning down to talk to Sammy.
"OK," Sammy said, but she was clearly disappointed that it wasn't Enrico instead of her.
She ran off to the kitchen and that gave Mitch a reason to tell Stella he had to go. "Sorry, I just started something. I better see to it. Nice seeing you."
"You too," Stella said, and with a little wave, she jogged away. Instead of watching her bounce away while her ponytail swayed, Mitch simply shut the door, relieved that she was gone.
In the kitchen, he found Sammy supervising the kittens while they ate. He stopped short when he heard what she was telling them. "It wasn't Rico, but he is gonna come back soon. He's our friend."
As Mitch hovered in the doorway and worried about how attached Sammy was to Enrico, she noticed him there. "When is Rico gonna come?" Sammy asked. "Natalie and Veronica want to know. They miss him."
"Oh, do they? I don't know yet." Mitch wasn't sure if Enrico was coming by at all. Aside from whether Enrico would be there today or the next day, there was an even bigger problem looming over them. Mitch decided to address it right now. "Honey, you know this isn't our house, right?"
"We live here," she stated unequivocally.
"Right, but we won't always live here," Mitch told her.
"Why?"
Mitch decided to keep it simple. "Because the house will be sold to someone else."
"Oh, no," she said and she hugged Veronica to her.
"We'll move somewhere new and that will be a nice place too," Mitch said, but all he could think was how Enrico wouldn't be there.
"We won't move far away, will we, Daddy? We have to stay in Peach Tree so we can see Rico and everybody," she said.
"That might..." he started to say, but Sammy kept staring up at him with those open and trusting, blue eyes and he couldn't tell her. He only smiled and said, "How about if we go out for breakfast?"
"Yes. We can go see Rico," she said enthusiastically, and Mitch had to wonder if that's why he was changing his breakfast plans.
Telling himself to stay away from Enrico didn't do any good so far. Mitch wanted Sammy to be able to see him, but he knew being around him would be difficult. For Sammy, he would go.
Things between him and Enrico were sure to be tense, but he didn't care if being around him was uncomfortable or even painful. He felt compelled to go, like everything in his life conspired to push him toward Enrico no matter how hard he fought.
***
That morning, Rico was wiping the counter when he looked up and saw Lara coming through the café doors. Seeing her, he froze and kept watching the door, but there was no sign of her sister. The only one with her was Gloria.
They came over to the counter and Rico greeted them, "Hi little red, big red."
"He gave us nicknames, Momma," Gloria said.
