Page 4 of Keepsake

My head whipped up when a loud scratching on the floor brought my attention away from my pity party. The dismissal died on my tongue when I saw it wasn’t just a random person sitting in front of me, but Alvaro.

He was clutching a whiskey tumbler, still dressed in the suit he was wearing this afternoon. I wanted to ask him what he was doing here, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. It was a hotel bar, and he buried his baby sister today. He was miserable, and misery loved company.

“She has that power,” he said when I remained silent, only my throat working on a knot. “Of making us feel unfit.”

I looked down at my glass, chuckling. “She’s right. I’m not a mother.”

“But you want the kids.”

“I want the kids.”

“Why?”

I raised my head up to look at him. Alvaro carried the Castillo’s whiskey-colored eyes adorned with dark long lashes. His jaw was strong with a five o’clock shadow so precise I knew it was a look he sported, no matter the circumstances. Dark caramel colored hair, just one shade darker than his tan skin, looked golden under the lights. Small patches of gray hair by his temples were a constant reminder he was sixteen years older than me. That made him forty-six. There was something familiar about him, and it hit me.Sofia. The man was not someone I knew very well, but he carried Sofia’s softness somewhere inside.

My stomach churned.

“Sofia asked,” I simply said.

Alvaro studied me. I lifted a shoulder, not sure what else to say.

“She left you three kids after not talking for years,” he started. “And you’re willing to try?”

“I didn’t stop being friends with Sofia because I wanted to,” I explained to a Castillo again.

Alvaro nodded.

“I always cared for her. We were like sisters. She asked me one last thing. One thing that is nothing in comparison to all she gave me.”

“Nothing?” He lifted an eyebrow. “Raising her children? Lachlan is only three.”

I didn’t want to get into details, so I just shook my head. “I love her. I have the money. I have the space. I can do this.”

My skin burned under Alvaro’s gaze. “That won’t work with my mom. That’s why she thinks you’re unfit.”

I nodded. “Yes, because I’m the girl who chose career over family. Did she even wonder if the option for a family was ever given to me?”

Alvaro licked his lips. “Explain to me why you don’t have a lawyer starting to push my parents back out yet.”

My eyebrows lifted, surprised by his suggestion. “Because I agree with her. They are kids and they just lost their mother. I never wanted to take them from here or destroy all that they ever knew. I thought I was going to have a chance to get to know them and at least offer the possibility of taking me as their guardian. I thought…”

“Dashiell is fifteen, Vienna is eight, and Lachlan is three,” Alvaro said. “You thought of talking to them?”

I nodded. “I thought they’d have a choice. I don’t know. But then your mom said I couldn’t trust what they say because they are traumatized.” I rubbed my temple.

A moment passed and I reached for the whiskey, taking a big swig of it. It burned on the way down, but it didn’t feel as bad as I already did.

“I can talk to my mother,” Alvaro offered again.

“Will she listen?”

Instead of replying, he pinned me with a look. “Do you really think you can do it?”

“Yes, I really do.”

He tsked. “If anything, you have money to pay for a nanny.”

Bloodyknucklesoverthewheel, it was a bad idea to work my frustrations out like I used to. It was an even worse one to go see my mother in this state. But the clock was ticking, I couldn’t stay away much longer.

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