again, she probably wouldn’t even remember what she had done, and it would be pointless to argue with her about it then, too.
He should have known better than to trust her to pick up Diego, but he really didn’t have a choice today. No one else was available, and she had been trying to stay clean. Or so he thought.
“Is he still at the shelter?”
“What sh-elter?” Carmen slurred.
Fuck.
Renzo stood, and turned fast to head for the front door again. Fuck his mother. She could die there tonight for all he gave a damn.
Someone more important needed him.
Diego would always be more important.
THREE
Laurie chatted on as her arms swung out one way to show Lucia something, and then just as quickly gestured the other way at something new. The woman was a fast talker, and she walked at just about the same speed she spoke. Lucia found she either had to pay close attention to everything Laurie said, or she missed far too much.
“Fridays and Saturdays, the shelter has a group of tutors who come in for the women that need an extra boost to pass their high school equivalency.”
“Could I help with that, too?” Lucia asked. “On Fridays, since I won’t be working weekends, I mean.”
Laurie shrugged. “You could, if you have time between everything else you’re doing. I don’t see why not.”
“And you said the kitchen is open seven days a week?”
“Yes, and you’ll get a schedule for two weeks ahead that show which shifts you’re helping out in there. It might seem a little overwhelming at first, but …”
Lucia just laughed as the woman trailed off. Overwhelming was not really the best way to describe this place. It was kind of amazing, honestly. The shelter housed twenty women who were very much in need of help to get back on their feet. Nearly all of them had at least one child, but Lucia had noticed a couple with more than one. A great portion of the women were young—some close to her age, and others, only a couple years older.
As Laurie had explained when they first began their walk-through tour of the facility, it was not her responsibility to tell Lucia the different women’s stories and what caused them to end up in the shelter. If they felt comfortable enough, they would explain it to her themselves.
But that didn’t stop Lucia from wondering. She was only human, after all. And her first thought was not to ask what had caused the women to end up here at the shelter, but rather, how she could help.
She was never more aware of her privilege than in that moment. She’d been born rich and to fairly good parents. Society had already given her a hand up by way of both a mother and father in a stable home. She wasn’t one of the ones who would get kicked when they were already down.
That’s not how it worked for people like her.
Right now, that was obvious.
“And since the kids are gone for the day,” Laurie continued, opening the steel double doors that lead into another section of the shelter, “now is a better time to let you see the daycare.”
“You know, that’s what had me most interested about this place.”
Laurie smiled over her shoulder. “I noticed you mentioned it in your application to volunteer. Do you like children?”
“I’ve actually never been around a lot of young kids,” Lucia admitted. “I’m the baby of my family, so someone always felt like they needed to take care of me. I just thought it was interesting that the shelter has managed to run a daycare here alongside everything else they do, so it was an interest of mine.”
“Well, you’ll get lots of practice with the littles while you’re here.”
Lucia had to smile at the way the woman called the children who attended the daycare littles. “I look forward to it. You said earlier that the shelter daycare takes kids from low-income families around the area, too?”
“We’re allowed to have four children per adult. Typically on any given day, we usually have five paid adults and five volunteers. The daycare has two sections—one for four and under. One for five and up. We don’t take kids older than twelve, either. But yes, that allows us to take forty children which we try to divide between the two age groups. At the moment, we only have twenty-nine children in the shelter with their mothers, and not all of them need the daycare on a daily basis. Some