Page 74 of Runaway Queen

“Promise? Pinky swear?” He held his hand out, pinky up.

I fit mine around his, and he solemnly shook our joined hands.

“Pinky swear.”

“Now it has to happen. You can’t break a pinky swear. It’s for life,” he explained in a hushed, reverent tone.

A laugh bubbled up in my chest. It wasn’t mocking or sarcastic. It wasn’t jaded in anyway. It was new. I didn’t know what to make of it. The calm inside me continued. “That’s fine by me.”

I could feel Sofia’s eyes on my face.

“Leo, we’re going to go home today, but the tests you did were very important. Well done.”

“I’m not having the operation?”

“You maybe are. We don’t know yet. We have to check a couple more things.”

Leo was quiet, studying his mother. “Did the man change his mind about helping me?”

Sofia wrapped an arm around his little shoulders. “No, sweetie, but there are a lot of factors involved.”

He stared at his mother for a long time. I knew that look. I’d given my own mother that look many times. It was the look of a kid who is desperately trying to make the world a little better, for the person who loves them the most.

“Don’t worry, Leo. Your mom told me about the operation. I’m going to help, if I can, however I can.”You’re not alone anymore.

Leo turned to me. He looked serious for a moment, and then he smiled. The look just about gave my wasted black heart an attack.

“Okay, sounds good. Do you know the book about the Ugly Dinosaur?”

“Er, I don’t, but you can tell me about it, if you want.”

Leo nodded and stretched to grab a hardcover book by his bedside. “I’ll read it to you.” He leaned closer to me, looking like he was about to share a secret. “I can’t read all the words, but I can remember them.”

“Good, that’s good. Having a good memory is important,” I found myself whispering back.

Leo nodded. “My mom says that, too. She always says that memories are the only way she can see my dad.”

My eyes flew to Sofia’s. I was caught in her chocolate-brown stare. It was official. Something weird was happening inside me, and I had no frame of reference to cope with it.

“Is that right?”

Leo nodded and then opened his book. “I’m going to read now. If you have questions, wait until the end, that’s the rule.”

“Clever.”

He grinned and started to read.

* * *

“She’s nearly done.Your little man is something else. Congratulations, brother.” Bran dropped onto the chair next to me. “Let’s see the new ink.” He tutted as he inspected my hand. “I’d love to say that it’s great work, but I’d be lying.”

“They aren’t supposed to be pretty.”

“Well, they certainly aren’t. Will they be a problem for the kidney thing?”

“I hope not. As long as there is no infection, it should be okay, if I’m a match.”

I was sitting on a bed in a private room. Directly below me, Sofia was filling out the discharge papers to take Leo home. It felt like a piece of me was downstairs with them. Twice in my life I had experienced love at first sight. First when I’d walked into an underground poker hall in New York, at the tender age of nineteen, and seen Sofia De Sanctis sitting at the bar. And now, the moment I’d seen that little boy smile up at me.

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