And now he had mistaken her for his mother. Never mind that Jennifer had obviously been a suck mother, she’d beenhismother, and he would have loved her with his whole heart, no matter how little Jennifer deserved it.
“Honey,” she said gently. “I’m not your mom. I’m your aunt. Jennifer and I…we were twins.”
“Sure.” He rolled his eyes. “Very funny. Pizza? Someone said something about pizza?”
“Yes. Of course.” She pulled out her cell phone and made the call.
Then she glanced at him as she kept stuffing things into garbage bags. “Honey, I’m really, really sorry. But it’s true. I’m your Aunt Celeste.”
“Okay. Your name is Celeste.” He brightened. “Remember when we were in Nevada, hiding out from the bad man, and your name was Bambi? I like Celeste better. Bambi was a boy deer.”
Flipping great. Jennifer had dragged her son through a childhood exactly like hers and Celeste’s. This was why Celeste was never, ever having children. The Hennessy women were just not meant to be mothers.
“Honey. I’m not your mother, honest. I’m your Aunt Celeste. Your mother is… I got a phone call and…” She blinked hard and tried not to cry.
Woman up, Celeste.Why should she even cry? After a lifetime of Jennifer drinking, taking drugs, lying, stealing, and dragging down everyone who got close to her, she was gone. Celeste had always known this day would come.
But her throat was so tight she could hardly breathe, and her eyes were burning. She turned her back on the little boy and wiped at her eyes with her sleeves.
He grabbed an empty pizza box and started stuffing it into the bag she was holding.
“What’s my new name going to be?” He was avoiding her gaze now. Worried. Afraid she’d insist that she wasn’t his mother.
“What name do you want?”
“Oh, I get to pick?” He finished ramming the pizza box in the bag and brushed his hair out of his face. “My name was Jeffrey when I was born. I liked that name. Can I have it again?”
“Of course you can. But really, Jeffrey, we need to talk. Your mother—”
He dropped the beer can he’d just picked up, clapped his hands over his ears, and said “La, la, la, la”, very loudly. His smile had vanished, and he was glaring at her.
Okay. She wouldn’t push it, because he wasn’t going to believe her. Not surprising. If history was any indicator, Jennifer had probably lied to her son all the time. Some people hummed or fidgeted or compulsively tapped their fingers; Jennifer lied. It was a reflex.
What to do now? She didn’t know how to deal with a normal child, much less a damaged, heart-broken one.
Well, first things first.
An hour later, he was full of pizza, and she’d cleaned the living room and kitchen with his help and her box of cleaning supplies. The air reeked of lemon Pledge and Comet, but it was better than the stink of rotting food. All the trash was sitting in bags outside the back door. She’d scrubbed Jeffrey’s dirty face and hands before he ate.
That was one good thing about Jennifer living in tiny crud-boxes; it hadn’t taken long to clean. Garbage tossed out back, laundry in the washing machine…
Jeffrey was looking at her with a critical eye. “You have pizza sauce on your face.”
“Well, silly me!” She ducked into the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. There were no towels. She blotted her face with the hem of her T-shirt.
A scream from the kitchen sent her running. A woman’s scream.
The front door was open. A short, stout woman with glasses was clutching her bleeding hand and backing away from Jeffrey with a look of horror on her face. The woman wore a gray pantsuit and was clutching a big black purse in front of her like a shield. Celeste looked at Jeffrey.
His teeth were long and pointy.Like fangs.
Vampire? There was no such thing as vampires, but there was also no denying those fangs.
Through his thick mop of uncut hair, she saw pointy ears tufted with fur.Not a vampire, then. Something else.
Jeffrey ran and hid behind Celeste. “Mom! That lady tried to take me! She tried to carry me out the door!”
“He bit me!” the woman shrieked, pointing at him. “I’m with Child Protective Services, and hebitme! And he growled at me! Like a dog!”
