Page 135 of Ivory Ashes

In a second, I’m out of my chair and kneeling in front of him. “What is it, bud? What do you need?”

“How did we get here?” He blinks around at the kitchen and Anatoly and Raoul. “We were at the beach.”

“You fell asleep on the plane. You didn’t wake up when I carried you to your room,” I explain.

He frowns. “So the adventure is over?”

Yes. If I know what’s good for me.

“We’ll go on plenty of other adventures, but yeah, this one is over.” I scoop him up with one arm. “Say goodnight to Uncle Nat and Uncle Raoul.”

Dante gives them a sleepy grin and blows a kiss over my shoulder.

“Goodnight, little man!” Anatoly calls after him.

We’re only halfway up the stairs when he lays his head on my shoulder. I sigh and pause as we reach the landing. My bedroom door is wide open and Viviana’s is cracked. Dante must have gone both places looking for me.

“Why did you come all the way downstairs to find me?” I ask him. “Your mom is in her room.”

“I know.”

I think that’s the only explanation I’m going to get until I lay him down in his bed and pull his covers over him. Then he chews on his lower lip and I see so much of Viviana in him. “Mama looked sad.”

My heart squeezes. “What?”

“I went in her room and she was red and puffy. It’s the way she looks when she cries.”

“Does she cry a lot?”

Only when men she trusts rip her heart out and stomp on it.

He wrinkles his nose while he thinks. “Not so much as she used to. At our old house, she cried a lot. She said she didn’t, but I could tell.”

“Why did she cry?”

Getting information about Viviana from Dante is low, but my snooping is balanced out by the fact that Dante is five and knows nothing.

He shrugs. “I don’t know. When I cry, it’s because I’m hurt or because someone does something mean. But I never saw Mama get hurt. And I was never mean to her. Well… almost never.”

“That’s good. You should be nice to your mom.”

One of us should be, at least.

“I am. And you are, too, right? That’s why Mama likes living here so much?”

“Did she tell you that?”

“No. I can just tell.”

That was before tonight. Before I muddied the waters and fucked everything up.

This thing with Viviana could’ve been civil and clean. We could’ve taken care of Dante and lived together peacefully. Instead, I listened to my dick and now, everything is a mess.

Before I can figure out what to say, there’s a knock on the door. Anatoly pops his head in.

“I’m busy.”

“I know.” He gives Dante a tight smile before he focuses on me. “It’s important. It’s about the Greeks.”

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