Mandy smiled at Rocco’s son and held out her hand. “Let’s go. We’ll ride a horse over to my house. We should have enough time for our outing before lunch.”
Zavi skipped along beside her on their way out to the stable. He was excited to have something different to do. He asked a million questions about random things, keeping up a constant stream of chatter. Mandy smiled. His excitement was infectious.
She wondered if Rocco had ever been as buoyant as his son. What a sight that would have been to see.
In the stables, she readied one of her horses, then lifted Zavi up into the saddle and swung up behind him. They went out of the stables into the sunshine, across Ty’s property to hers.
Zavi’s little hands held on to her forearms. He giggled as they climbed the hills. When they reached flat ground, she had him hold the reins and showed him how his movements directed the horse. They stopped at one of the upper corrals, where she tied the horse to the fence.
She and Zavi walked over to the new garden area. The trees the nursery had planted were a good size—bigger than saplings. The evergreen shrubs would take years to get big enough to make a privacy screen. But the little annuals in the beds under the cottonwoods and the colorful tiles on the benches gave a welcome pop of color.
Mandy looked down at Zavi and saw he wasn’t impressed. She smiled. “Would you like to turn the fountain on?”
He nodded. She showed him the switch in its protective plastic box. The motor whirred, then water spurted up out of the top of the fountain. It had three stone bowls to fill before it would fill the lower reservoir. Mandy stayed on her knees next to him as they watched the water spill over the first bowl. When it finally made it down to the lower level, she laughed and clapped her hands. Zavi smiled, but his joy was less enthusiastic.
“Zavi, what do you remember before you came to live here?”
“I remember Papa racing camels with my uncles.”
“Do you remember your mother?”
Zavi’s eyes took on an unfocused look. Mandy knew he hadn’t been very old when the explosion happened, shredding his family. Rocco had said a shepherd had taken him in. And then he’d been turned over to the Americans while they looked for Rocco.
“I remember my aunts. And my grandmother.” He frowned. “A little.”
Why didn’t he remember his mother?
“I thought, sometime, if you wanted to talk to your mom, you could come here and say it to the fountain.”
Zavi frowned as he considered that. “You want me to talk to the water? Why can’t I just tell you? You’re my mom, aren’t you?”
Great, huge tears filled Mandy’s eyes. She laughed and pulled Zavi close, rocking him slightly as she squeezed him. He pushed free. His face was very serious. “Papa said you’re going to have my baby brother or sister. You’ll be the baby’s mom, so I thought you’d be my mom, too.”
Mandy nodded. She brushed Zavi’s hair from his temple. Maybe…maybe she should go ahead and marry Rocco—for Zavi’s sake. “It would make me the happiest person in the world to be your mom.”
“Then I can call you Mom?”
“I’ll talk to your dad.”
“Okay. But I’m going to call you Mom anyway. He doesn’t get to pick who my mom is.”
“He does get to pick, sweetheart.”
“Then I’ll tell him to pick you.” He looked at the water spilling over the stone bowls. “I like your fountain, Mom, but I
don’t want to talk to the water.” He shot a glance over to their horse. “Can we ride around some more?”
*
Mandy was at the buffet bar making a sandwich for Zavi when Rocco came into the dining room. His hair was wet. A rough beard darkened his chin and neck. She didn’t know where he was sleeping, or even if he was sleeping—if she were to judge from the shadows under his eyes. He looked lean again, like when she first met him.
He glanced across the room as if seeking her out. His gaze held hers a second, then dropped to his son. Zavi knelt in his seat. “Papa! Sit with me and Mom!”
The whole room went silent, and she became the focus of several intense stares at Zavi’s outburst. The only person whose reaction she cared about was Rocco. He looked almost relieved. He came over to the buffet and reached for a coffee cup.
“Have you eaten anything recently?” she asked, using his proximity to hide her question from Kit and the others.
He turned his face until it almost touched hers. “I’m not hungry. I just wanted to say good morning to Zavi. And to you.” The last he added as if an afterthought. He had a bruise on the side of his chin and a tear in the corner of his lip. These were new, not leftover from Fiona’s recent rescue.
“What happened to you?”
He touched a knuckle to his lip. “Nothing. Forget it, Mandy.” His dark eyes caught hers. “I don’t need to be fixed.”