Shit.Maybe shewouldhave someone with her today, which would cramp Vincent’s style. On second thought, shehadtold Bobbie that Vince could visit at a certain time, so maybe he’d be her only drop-in today.
There was no need to borrow trouble.
Vince was nervous enough.
“Morning, Mom,” he chirped upon entering the kitchen that smelled like coffee and things that were so familiar from his childhood, he almost felt like he was twelve again.
“Well, don’t you look adorable,” she chuckled, taking in his clown apparel. “Headed to the hospital again?”
“Yup. I feel like it’s a good thing. I’m reconnecting with my humorous side, and the kids seemed to love me.”
“Only the kids?” his mother asked cannily.
Dammit.Vincent groaned.
“You’ve been talking to Bobbie, haven’t you.”
He should have known. Gossip in this family traveled like wildfire.
“I might have shared a word or two with her this morning. I bet you didn’t know I was friends with Lace’s grandmother?”
Vincent would have slapped his forehead if he didn’t think he’d disturb the paint. “Of course you were,” he snorted. “You know everybody. But…”
It occurred to him that his mother had used the past tense.
“You said youwerefriends?”
“Yes. Fran passed a number of years back. She and?—”
“No. Don’t tell me,” Vince stopped her with a hand in the air. “It’s not that I don’t want to know, but I feel like Lace should be the one sharing her life-details with me, when and if she wants.”
His mother smiled. “I understand.”
She changed the subject. “Do you want coffee? Eggs?” she asked. “The coffee is ready, and the eggs will only take me a few minutes to make.”
“Thanks, Mom, but coffee only,” he replied, heading over to the machine and pouring himself a travel mug. “I want to get on the road.”
Ellen grinned again. “Laceispretty special, isn’t she,” she mentioned conversationally.
“Again, I don’t know much about her,” Vince admitted. “But even after I heard of her cancer diagnosis… No, that’s not right.Despiteher cancer diagnosis, she intrigues me.”
He thought for a few seconds over whether to mention Inez, and decided to go for it. The change of subject might get his mother’s mind off Lace. He was sure that—in Ellen’s head—she already had them married with children.
“There’s also this little girl I want to see,” he admitted.
“Oh?” His mother didn’t push, she just waited patiently for Vince to give over information. She would have made one hell of an investigations officer.
Vince cleared his throat. “In the peds chemo unit at the hospital yesterday, there were six kids of various ages getting their infusions. Five of them had adults with them, and one was all alone.”
Now his mother was all ears.
“All alone?”
“Uh, huh. Her name is Inez. She’s a foster kid, and her current foster parents told her they have too much on their plate to accompany her to the hospital,” he growled. “It seems,” he continued somewhat bitterly, “that her social worker isalsotoobusy to stay, because the lady drops her off, then picks her up once her treatment is over.”
“Well, that’s just sad,” Ellen stated, sitting down and giving Vincent all her attention. “Is there anything we can do?”
Here’s where the rubber hit the road. What would his mother think of him becoming a foster parent?