I Wanna Know What Love Is

Chapter 4

Bucky rescheduled dinner with Beth after getting in touch with Marta. Marta cried so much he could barely understand her. Once she talked to Amy and Tessa on Facetime, she settled down a little. He invited her to come over for pizza, and she agreed. Then he spent twenty minutes trying to feed Jamie baby food, rather than formula, and ended up with the baby needing a bath. He loved to do raspberries which spread the food everywhere. Bucky almost needed a bath, too.

Pulling the baby out of the tub, he laughed and said, "We are going to have to work on this, kid. I won't ever be able to take you in public at this rate." Jamie looked at him and raspberries again. "Exactly. Good thing you're cute."

By the time he got gotten him dressed, the doorbell rang. Both girls ran to get it, and he called out for them to wait. Apparently, he needed to educate them about the dangers of the world when they got to New York.

When they saw Marta, both girls almost knocked him down to get to her. Even the dog danced around with excitement. After covering both girls with kisses and hugging on them until she was in tears again, she finally greeted Bucky. She was younger than he expected, or at least she looked at it, and had a face that screamed soccer mom to him, but she had already mentioned she had no kids.

"Mr. Barnes, it's so nice to meet you," she said politely. "Mr., and Mrs. Barnes were so excited when they found out about you. They made quite a few attempts to get in touch with you but things were so difficult to find people, after the Blip."

"Please, call me Bucky. Come on in. It feels strange inviting you in here when I've been in here less than a day and you lived here for years," he said, shutting the door. He saw her gazing at Jamie, and he just handed him over.

"He's so big!" she said with a big smile. "I guess in my head they were living in an orphanage like Little Orphan Annie and being starved."

Bucky followed her into the Great Room and listened to girls. Jamie fell asleep, so Bucky took him back so the girls could sit with Marta. They talked about his plans for the house, too. She offered to supervise the packing of the stuff for storage.

"I really don't mind. I basically retired when they took the kids. I'm too old to start over with another family. I know more about what items had special significance to James and Lisa. I'd hate for anything important to be left out," she replied, looking down at Tessa. "She's much more subdued than normal. It's heartbreaking."

"She was very excited a few times today but when we were in her parents' room, she got quiet and said she was sad. I don't know them well enough to know what's normal but so far they both have answered when I asked what was wrong so I guess that's a good sign." He watched Tessa for a minute. She seemed more subdued, but maybe she was tired. "But I'd love for you to supervise the packers. I would want things like photo albums and paperwork that I might need in the future to be sent to me rather than storage, anyway. But I'll only let you if you let me pay you. Were you even given a payment when you left? Like a year's severance or retirement or something?"

Marta looked uncomfortable but she admitted she had not, because of the assets were frozen. "I'll take care of that if you can let me know how much you were paid and how often. I'm sorry that happened. I only found out about James and Lisa four days ago," Bucky explained, wondering why the lawyer didn't mention it. Perhaps this was something the accountant did. He needed to find someone who could give him a full explanation of what needs to be done. "Marta, whose decision was it that the children weren't allowed to go to the funeral?"

"I honestly do not know who made that decision. I think it was the Department of Children's Services. After their parents died, we discussed it with her lawyers and her friends once we found how Lisa's parents were so senile and were entering a nursing home soon, that I would care for the children while Beth and John applied to become foster parents. No one realized you were the only relative left. Children's Services came for the children the day after we found out about her parents. Someone had called to report that the children were being cared for by a housekeeper."