It was a simple luxury I knew not many single mothers got. So few of us got the chance to sit down and enjoy a quiet meal, and I tried my best to really feel present and to enjoy it. Being a mother was a full-time job, and so many mothers had to work another job on top of that.
Which was exactly why I was trying not to think about Vince or about the war. I didn’t want to waste my very rare quiet time on worries that wouldn’t help anything or anyone.
Of course, I couldn’t really help it.
My mind kept roaming back to Vince. I kept thinking about what had happened yesterday. I didn’t know what had come over me, why I’d suddenly felt the need to jump him like that. It was a combination of his normal, handsome, cocky nature and the fact that he had taken care of Alexei.
There was just something so incredibly sexy about that. He’d somehow gotten Alexei to take a nap, and although it was pretty short-lived, it drove me wild imagining him taking care of Alexei. I knew Vince wasn’t the father type, but it gave me hope that maybe he would try to be in Alexei’s life anyway.
Just as soon as I let myself indulge in thinking about Vince and his strong arms, someone knocked at the door.
I felt a thrill run down my spine. Maybe it was Vince, coming back for more. Maybe he had Sonya take Alexei just so he could make me moan as loudly as he wanted.
“Come in,” I called out.
The door opened, and Louisa stepped in.
I glanced down at the ground to compose myself. I didn’t want her to see the disappointment.
If she did or not, she didn’t say anything about it.
“Come with me,” she said.
“Uh, hi, Louisa,” I said.
“Hi. Come with me.”
Lou was wearing an oversized T-shirt and tapered sweatpants. She looked like she hadn’t slept in a day or two. She was totally stunning.
“Where are we going?”
“Just come.”
I stood up. “Okay, okay. Hold on.” I quickly went back into the bedroom and got changed. I could hear her pacing around out in the living room while she waited.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Lead the way.”
Without another word she turned and left my rooms. I followed her through the twisting passageways, down a few flights of stairs, and out the back door of the mansion.
We wound our way along the road that twisted through the compound’s center, heading away from the house.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked her.
“This way.” She cut off the main road and across a short field. There was a small outcropping of trees up ahead on top of a small hill, and Louisa took us right toward them.
“Are you about to kill me or something?” I asked her jokingly.
“Just watch.”
We got into the trees and Louisa stopped. She crouched down and looked forward, and I got down beside her.
Just ahead we could see the guard station at the base of the road. There were more people down there than usual, and all of them were heavily armed.
“A lot of guns,” I commented. “Not that weird though, since we’re supposed to be in a war.”
“We?” she asked.
“You, whatever.”
She shrugged at me. “Just wait.”
I sighed, a little frustrated. Louisa wasn’t the best conversationalist in the world, and so we sat there in silence just watching the road. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I figured I’d know it when I saw it.
After a few minutes of waiting, I caught sight of a large semi-truck coming down the road. It slowed and turned up toward the compound’s gates. All of the men down there were suddenly on high alert, their guns pointed and ready.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Watch.”
“Is this normal?”
She shushed me, and so I watched as the truck pulled up to the gate. It stopped, and for a second, nothing happened.
It was a tense second. The men with guns stared and the truck simply sat there, unmoving. Finally, the driver’s door opened and a man climbed out. I couldn’t see him from this distance, but quickly the Italians swarmed him, pulling him aside.
What happened next happened fast. The Italians tore through that truck, checking every single inch of it. They went through the back, the front, the bottom, the top, every single inch of it. Meanwhile, the driver just stood there and watched passively, smoking a cigarette.
“So it’s a shipment,” I said. “I bet the mansion gets them every day.”
“Not just any shipment,” Louisa said.
“What’s in it?”
“You’ll see.”
“Why are you being so mysterious?”
She stared at me. “Because I want you to see and to understand.”
“Okay,” I said softly. Louisa was strangely intense.
Although then again, she was always strange and intense. Right now she was just being both at the same time.
Finally, the men finished searching the truck. Someone got up front and began to drive it up the road while the driver simply began to walk away.
The men let him go. He got to the main road and just kept walking, eventually disappearing from sight.
“Come on,” Lou said.