Page 82 of Keepsake

“Can you promise that?” She wasn’t sure.

I shook the pinky at her. “I’d never break a pinky promise. Come on.”

Vienna looped her finger into mine, a small smile already blooming.

“I’ll never leave you. I’ll always be here to protect you.”

“Tío Alvaro, too?”

I opened my mouth to say I couldn’t make promises in his name when he appeared at the door. Lachlan in his arms. He looked different from when he left.

“What are you girls doing in bed?”

As he asked, Lachlan squirmed in his arms to get free. Alvaro lowered him down and the boy zoomed across the bedroom and hopped on the bed.

He was on my side, so I helped him up and he came to my lap quickly. I kissed his cheek. “How are you, buddy?”

Lachlan didn’t answer, but he leaned back, getting comfortable on my chest and making me shake differently now. Alvaro must have noticed my expression, because when I glanced up to see if he caught that, he was smiling.

“What about pizza?”

Afterthecuddlefest,feeling more like myself, and pizza I poured a generous glass of wine. His firm steps coming down the stairs made me glance up.

“Wine?”

“I’ll grab a beer.”

Coming behind me, Alvaro opened the fridge. I heard the can opening as I placed the wine bottle to the side, taking a long sip with my eyes closed.

“Lachlan?” I asked.

“Sleeping.”

“Vienna too?”

“Yep.”

I turned to face him. “Dashiell?”

“Playing video games, but I’ll kick his ass to bed soon enough.”

We stood one in front of the other, him holding his beer and me with my wine. I said nothing until my eyes landed on his knuckles.

They were hurt. I moved closer to him by instinct.

“What happened?”

Alvaro practically jumped to his feet, his eyes glazing over the hurt and shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

I wanted to worry, but I had to respect his privacy. Instead of poking in his life, I took a breath and directed us to something away from all the topics we had to discuss.

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

He smiled slowly. “Yeah. That sounds good.”

I was always direct, but this time around, I didn’t want to ask him where he went and why he was coming back with bloody knuckles. The questions were on the tip of my tongue, but instead, I moved to the media room with Alvaro on my heels.

He helped me choose something to watch, a movie everyone was talking about. I finished my first glass of wine and filled up again, stopping by the fridge to get him a beer.

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