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Oh, how she wished she and her mother had a family. She didn’t even know her biological family. That hurt her the most. She was grateful for her adoptive mother but the pain of not knowing why her real family gave her away, stung her at times.
“So you have six brothers?” Maxine was stunned. She’d read about the Romero family but didn’t realize there was…so many of them.
“Yeah. And they’re all a pain in the butt!” Lucas grinned.
“You don’t mean that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because of the way you just spoke about them. I’ve heard you’d do anything for your siblings or other family members.”
“Oh, really? So you’ve been checking up on me, have you?”
“No!” Maxine cast her eyes away to look at the blueness of the lake that was now fully lit up under the early morning sun. Heat rose to her cheeks.
“So, what is it then? How did you know?”
“Aha! See. You admit it. You said how did you know, not how could you be so sure?” she said, raising a brow, a knowing grin on her lips.
Lucas grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I’ll do anything for my family and those close to me.”
His words caused a wave of hot emotions to stir through Maxine. He would do anything for his family or those close to him.
“You know, we really should be going, Lucas. I’ve really enjoyed—" Maxine stopped midsentence. Her cell phone rang and startled her. She reached into her bag and fished her out her phone. When she read the display, her heart stopped.
It was the nursing home calling her.
“What is it?” Lucas was overtly concerned.
“Um…it’s the nursing home.” Her heart plummeted in her chest. They would not be calling her unless it was something urgent. Not at this hour of the morning.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Has Lucas returned yet?” Zack asked as he walked into the breakfast room. His grandfather, Toni, and Toni’s wife, Shelly, alongside side his cousin, Antonio, with his wife, Lucy, were seated at the long, oval breakfast table. The morning sun shone in the area through the ceiling-to-floor windows.
What were they talking about? Zack was no fool. The family hardly used the breakfast room unless they were having an intense discussion about something.
Was this about his brother, Lucas, and getting Lucas hitched so that he could avoid another public relations disaster with an upcoming launch? He knew his grandfather wanted so badly to repair the carefree, wild images of his grandsons in the media but Zack just hoped to God he wasn’t playing matchmaker with Lucas.
It was as if his grandfather saw single as being some sort of disorder that needed to be treated…a la wedding band of gold.
Well, Zack could certainly speak for his brother when he thought: "Thanks but no thanks!”
A grin of amusement touched Toni’s lips. “I think he’s been out all night. He was going to help that young woman, Maxine.” Toni went back to eating his crepes.
Zack sighed a deep breath. “I can’t seem to reach him on his cell. I’m going in to the office now.”
“Very well. And oh, Zack,” Toni called out, not looking up from his plate. “Don’t do anything silly.”
Now what did his dear old grandfather mean by that?
***
“I’m sorry, Maxine,” the doctor said as he sat in the chair of his office at the nursing home.
Maxine could not sit down. She had to stand up. She stood beside Lucas with her arms wrapped tightly across her chest. Lucas was right beside her in the doctor’s office.
She was glad he was there. She needed him more than anything. She just realized she had very few close people to turn to. She did have Lucy but Lucy was married and expecting a child during a difficult pregnancy. Thank God for Lucas!
“So what you’re saying is that my mother has to be transferred to…another type of facility?” Maxine's voice trembled. They were going to have her mother committed. The thought brought a crushing boulder to her stomach.
“Well,” the doctor continued. “She does require more supervision for one thing. As I mentioned earlier, she had a pretty difficult episode last night. She was very…” he hesitated, glancing at Lucas momentarily as if unsure if he should divulge such personal information in front of non-family members.
