Page 55 of Hidden While In Sight

Connor’s head lifted, and his eyes held a light that reminded Diego of the rare moments when he’d seen the same light in Hannah’s eyes. His throat tightened as his gaze shifted to the hallway.

Hannah had come for her son, bouncing Emma in her arms. Her eyes locked on Diego, but her face wasn’t tightened into blankness. It was softer than that.

“As long as you’re okay with it?” Diego said.

And, fuck, there was that smile, the one that made her dimple peek out.

“I’m fine with it.” Hannah’s gaze moved to her son. “Would you like that, Connor?”

The boy nodded, scrambling to his feet.

Connor was still so young. Diego had been on the streets around that age, but that didn’t mean he should have been. Using tools on the SUV kept those memories at bay. That’s how it always was for Diego. With nuts and bolts and plugs and all other sorts of parts in his hands, his mind could hyper-focus on each piece, and everything else fell away.

It was the best way he’d learned to handle his emotions, especially anger. It kept him from getting his ass kicked quite as much. Diego was still on the scrawny side, but he’d been pathetically weak as a kid. Pair that with a smart mouth, and he’d gotten into some tough spots.

He wouldn’t let Connor crawl under the SUV with him; it didn’t seem safe. Connor liked to get his hands in the toolbox best. He’d even remembered most of the tools Diego had taught him. Diego picked through the toolbox first, moving the ones he thought would be okay for Connor to handle to the top, and he let him touch anything there as much as he wanted.

As he got out from under the vehicle an hour later, Diego wiped his hands on a cloth while studying Connor’s expression. The kid wasn’t smiling or anything, but those lines near his eyes that made him look like a worried old man had eased.

They went back inside together.

A sound drew their eyes to the living room. Emma giggled as her mother spun her in her arms in a tight circle.

Emma’s giggle had become one of Diego’s favorite sounds. Hannah’s daughter was bursting with joy all the time.

The sight of them spinning made him a little dizzy, but the glimpses of Hannah’s face rooted him to the floor. She was grinning, a grin so wide that even the side of her mouth that didn’t like to work tilted up, and her dimples looked like they had in that picture he’d seen of her younger self.

Hannah and her daughter tumbled down together in dizziness. Diego lurched forward a step in worry, but then it wasn’t just Emma giggling.

Hannah’s laugh started as that slight burst of sound he’d heard a few times before. She gathered Emma to her chest, and soon her laughter filled the space with a tingling warmth.

Fuck, he loved this woman. Yes, he wanted to link their bodies together, tie her physically to him so neither of them would be able to pull apart, but he also wanted endless moments like this one, where she was so happy she bubbled over with joy.

He might crave these moments even more.

He looked down at Connor, who looked back up at him, and they shared a smile. Connor had the same dimples as his mother when he smiled.

They both joined in. Diego spun Hannah and Emma together in his grease-stained arms, enjoying Hannah’s surprised, gasping laugh. He spun Connor afterward and got to hear his giggle. All the spinning made him as dizzy as he thought it would, but after, when they all lay sprawled on the living room floor, he also felt so full of life that the skin on his chest itched as if it were expanding and would explode.

As he lay on his back, Hannah’s and her children’s limbs grazing his, their laughter and joy seemed to sparkle in the air. This family sure as hell felt like it belonged to him.

Diego’s alarm vibrated on his phone. He switched it off as he continued flicking through the information that had been gathered, a swirl of discontent fizzling inside of him.

He glanced up at the monitors, but the target wasn’t home like usual.

Diego considered giving Ramiro a call. He no longer wanted to bust in his face for disrespecting Hannah, so it’d be fine.

He brought up his texts first, sending off his weekly message to Naz.

Then he dialed the phone.

Summer’s sunshine-filled secretary voice didn’t scrape along his nerve endings as badly as it usually did. It held a flustered note that reminded him of Hannah when his eyes were on her.

“Hey, it’s Diego. Is Ramiro around?”

She put him on hold, which was fair. Ramiro was probably pissed. Diego had ignored his last few calls, partly because he was too pissed to talk to him. Another part of it was that he enjoyed the bubble he was living in, and he worried Ramiro’s ragging would make it burst.

Hannah and her children had been smiling so much this past week. Even at mealtimes, where they were actually eating. Diego switched things up each day, not wanting them sitting around the table every time.

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