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THE SHELTER EVENT WAS nearly too busy for Faith to worry.
Nearly.
She watched her mother carefully for any sign that something was wrong, but all she saw was the usual patience and gentle smiles her mother shared with everyone who interacted with her, whether it was family, friend, or stranger.
But her father and Aunt Catherine spoke quietly together more than once, their eyes on her mother as well, and Faith felt the ache in her chest deepen.
“Miss, did you bake these? They’re so good!”
A little girl with hair cropped close to her head smiled up at her, and Faith saw that she was missing two of her top teeth.
“No, I didn’t, but I certainly agree. May I ask your name?”
“I’m Hannah. Oatmeal cookies are the best, don’t you think?”
Faith reached out and rested her hand on the girl’s head, the pale yellow strands of hair soft beneath her skin. Aunt Catherine’s cookies were almost gone, but others had contributed food for the afternoon as well, so she wasn’t worried they would run out of treats.
“I’m so sorry, miss. Hannah, we’re not here to bother anyone.”
A thin woman in a faded blue dress rushed over, holding out a hand to Hannah as she juggled a squirming toddler on her hip, gripping him as tightly as she could against her.
“She’s no trouble at all. We’ve discovered that we both love oatmeal cookies,” Faith started, then held out her hands. “May I take him for a moment? Maybe you’d like to sit with Hannah and have something more substantial to eat?”
The woman’s eyes grew wide, but Faith could sense her hesitation. How easy would it be for her to hand over her own child to a stranger?
She forced herself to keep a smile on her face as she realized that it was the first time she had ever thought of a child of her own. She hadn’t even considered marriage at all, although there were plenty of young men of her acquaintance and she was of marriageable age, but the subject had never really come up with her parents.
And they would never press her into a union she didn’t want.
Children had never even entered her mind.
“Does that mean there’s more to eat?”
Hannah interrupted her thoughts just as the mother took a few tentative steps closer before holding her restless boy out for Faith to take.
“Yes, it does,” Faith managed to say as she wrangled the child, who grabbed at her nose and hair, pulling it from the braid pinned to the back of her head. “There’s fried chicken, and if I’m not mistaken, someone has cooked up some corn on the cob.”
“Our Joey’s a handful, miss. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
The mother twisted her hands together in front of her waist, and Faith could see both the trepidation in her expression as well as a bit of eagerness. She needed a break from the child, as well as something filling to eat.
“Not at all. Why don’t the two of you go ahead and eat. We’ll take a little walk and see who we meet, won’t we, good sir?”
The boy pushed a fist against her cheek, hard enough to make her turn her head away, and Faith wondered what she’d gotten herself into.
“You’re one of them Davenports, aren’t you, miss? You have the look of the missus about you.”
It was a compliment Faith heard often, that she took after her mother in her appearance, but she also knew that what mattered most was that she inherit her charity and kindness towards others.
“I am, thank you. I know my mother is well-liked by all who come here.”
When the woman pulled Hannah close to her side, the girl whined a little, but said nothing.
“She helped me when this one was coming along and I had troubles. I don’t know what we would have done without her and First Steps.”
Faith tightened her hold on little Joey, who was starting to buck against her hip. He was stronger than his small stature let on.
“I’m glad she was able to be of assistance, and I’ll let her know you spoke highly of her. But I think you’d best be off to get something to eat before anyone else gets the best of it.”
Hannah squealed, and while Faith knew that more food would be brought during the day so no one would go hungry, she also knew that Hannah was itching to eat, and she would be the best one to prompt her mother to move along.
The woman nodded at Faith with a smile, and took Hannah’s hand before the girl tugged her from Faith’s sight.
“And what about you? Do you like oatmeal cookies like your sister does?”
She gazed into the boy’s bright blue eyes as a deep voice answered her question at her back.
“I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t like oatmeal cookies, so I’d lay odds the young gentleman here must.”
Before Faith could turn to see who was speaking, as she couldn’t place the voice to anyone she knew, a man with dark curling hair and eyes as black as midnight stepped in front of her.
“I’m sorry, I can see I’ve startled you, which was not my intention.”
She shook her head as she stared at him, but for some reason, her voice was gone. Instead, she smiled, staring into eyes darker than she had ever seen before.
Joey dropped his head against her neck and sighed, making Faith’s heart flutter a little. He was warm, and his pale hair was so soft as she rested her hand along the back of his head.
“Maybe he’ll have a bite after his nap,” the man suggested, glancing at the child.
Faith might have been the oldest of the Davenport grandchildren, but she wasn’t so much older than the rest that she had ever had a hand in caring for them as infants. She didn’t know that Joey’s sudden change in behavior might indicate he was sleepy.
But this man did.
“I have six younger brothers and sisters, and have had my share of them falling asleep against my shoulder,” he continued, as if he could tell that she was wondering about this awareness.
She tightened her hold on Joey, as if she could pull him any closer.
“That is a sweet picture the two of you make. I can see he loves his mother very much.”
“Oh, no,” Faith’s voice came to her suddenly, her denial a rush of words. “His mother and sister are eating, and I thought it would be easier for them without having to mind him as well.”
The man blinked a couple of times, his gaze moving from Joey to her, and he smiled, although it wasn’t as broad as it had been the first time he spoke to her.
A silence stretched out between them, and his smile faded as they stared into each other’s eyes.
“Well, in that case, would you care for adult company while you continue to watch over him?”
His voice seemed a little tentative now, not as sure as it had been earlier. Faith wondered why, just as she wondered who he was and why she had never seen him before.
Newport was a small town, and everyone knew everyone else, or at least everyone had heard tell about everyone else.
A dark, handsome stranger was bound to be a hot topic sooner than later.
“Yes, thank you, that would be nice.”
She spoke without thinking, not even considering that she didn’t even know his name. But he kept a respectable distance between them as she turned around, moving towards the wide yard that was nearly full with a vegetable garden her mother and aunts had planted since pulling down a crumbling building that had taken up the space when First Steps first came into being.
“This garden is lovely. My parents would be impressed with such vibrant peppers.”
Now, this was a strange turn in the conversation. He was interested in the color of vegetables?
She couldn’t help but laugh, and he frowned at her, although his eyes told her that he took no offense; in fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I come from a long line of grocers, and we take our gardening very seriously.”
There was a lilt in his voice, something she couldn’t quite describe, but it was soothing while his tone was no less masculine.
“My family grows these for the shelter residents, and for others in the community who need food. I’m not sure how much they knew about it when they started, but they do seem to have figured it out.”
The man leaned over a few plants, and Faith watched him, his powder blue suit catching the glint of the sun and complementing his tanned skin and dark hair.
“There you are, Faith. I was wondering what might have caught your attention.”
She jumped as she felt a hand on her back, but the familiar sound of her mother’s voice calmed her immediately.
But when she turned her head to look at her mother, she found her not watching Faith but the man, her eyes narrowing just enough for Faith to notice.
“Who is your new friend?”
While he had been taking a keen interest in the garden, the man must have also kept his attention on Faith, because he stood abruptly and nodded to Faith’s mother as he walked towards them.
“I am Nico d’Amici, and I am sorry if I’ve kept her from other responsibilities.”
He spoke to her mother, but he slid his gaze to Faith briefly before he bent his head again, leaving her with a small smile before he walked away, headed into the crowd of people talking and eating together just outside of the shelter.
As if he could disappear into the midst of people she knew, with that hair and those eyes . . .
“And how did you come by this little one?”
Her mother was patting Joey on the back gently, as he breathed deeply against Faith’s neck, his exhalations warm tickling her skin.
“Oh, Joey. His sister was very eager to eat, and I thought his mother might like some time for the two of them to do so without him wiggling around in her arms.”
She laughed, but it felt forced, and she shook her head a little to clear it.
“And where did you find him?”
Faith rested her cheek on Joey’s head and looked into her mother’s eyes. The vibrant green she was used to seemed a little darker now, and her gaze was inescapable.
“He was here, that’s all. We started talking, and walked over here. I think we must have spent all of a couple of minutes conversing.”
Her mother turned away, looking into the crowd.
“And,” Faith continued. “He seemed especially impressed with the vegetable garden.”
That got her mother’s attention, and Faith laughed as her mother stared at her, whatever concern she had left behind in the incredulous expression on her face.
“What?”
When her mother laughed along with her, the little boy began to stir in Faith’s arms, and the two of them spoke softly to him as he awakened.
The man, Nico, was no longer in her mother’s thoughts.
But Faith found herself glancing into the crowd to see if she could catch a glimpse of that blue suit and black hair as her mother took the child from her arms, the loss of his weight and warmth pulling at her senses.