Page 101 of Only the Small Bones
“I’ve been learning to play your violin. William named her after you.” His voice thickened with emotion. “You’d love him. You too Nonna. He takes good care of me.” He kept his gaze on me, and my heart swelled until I thought it might burst from all the love it contained.
“I love your son.” I smoothed my fingers over his mother’s engraved name. “And your grandson.” I reached over for his nonna’s tombstone next.
“And I love him more,” Asher said predictably. I rolled my eyes, and he laid his head on my shoulder.
The sun dipped behind the clouds again, the wind stirring up the fallen leaves. “I think they’re telling us it’s okay to go,” he said, laughing through his sadness. It began to drizzle, picking up speed as we dashed hand in hand to the car. We were out of breath from all the running and laughter by the time we shutourselves in. The skies opened up then, pouring down around us.
I leaned over to kiss all the parts of his face that I loved—which meant every inch of it. “Do you want to head home? My mother will understand.”
“No.” Asher stared pensively into the rain. “I need…”A mother right now, he didn’t say.
“Okay, let’s go. She’ll be happy to see you.”
We pulled up to my mother’s Brooklyn Heights home thirty minutes later. It may not have been nestled in the neighborhood she’d envisioned before I was taken, but her dreams of owning a brownstone had come true.
“My babies are here!” She was already holding the door open, allowing us to run in from the rain. She must have been watching for us through the window.
“Momma,” I said, coming in for a hug, but she nudged me out of the way to get to Asher.
“Is today a good day for a hug?” she asked him, because being touched by anyone but me was still a problem sometimes. Asher embraced her instead of answering. They rocked from side to side as she mothered him, rubbing soothing circles along his back.
“Gee, I remember when I was the favorite,” I muttered dryly.
“I remember when I was the second favorite,” Davidson said, stepping in beside me. He looked at my mother like she walked-on-water. It’d taken a couple months to get used to the idea of them dating. Mostly because I’d been the only man in her life since my grandfather died. Apparently, she and Davidson grew closer after the Freedom Fighters charity gala last year.
We moved out of earshot. “How’s it going between you two? Without any intimate details,” I tossed in. I knew things were rough at the beginning. Neither of them had been in a serious relationship for some time, and Davidson was the protective,provider type. Neither of which appealed to my fiercely independent mother. She wanted love and companionship. She wanted someone who treated her as an equal, not a delicate thing to be kept on a shelf away from harm.
“She puts me in my place when needed. I just want to take care of her, but I’m learning the best way to do that is by standing by her side, not in front of her. No more gilded cages.” He winked. That was how his marriage ended, and he’d cautioned me against losing Asher the same way.
“Yeah, no more gilded cages,” I agreed. “Anything new?” Asher had told Davidson everything after the Christmas holiday, which led to the FBI busting a trafficking ring with ties to Asia. The men and women taken into custody were underlings, but a few of them turned state’s evidence, leading the bureau to someone a little higher up on the food chain. Aisling Murphy—the man I once knew as Declan.
“Murphy’s being extradited here as we speak.” He’d been living out his retirement in Ireland.
“And everyone else who hurt Asher? The man who brought him here?”
“We’re working with our partner agencies abroad on all that, but everything’s classified right now. Don’t worry.” He rested a hand on my shoulder when I sighed. “We’re going to get these fuckers, and all the sick, powerful people protecting them.” Sick people who couldn’t afford to be exposed. People who ran the risk of losing their political positions by having their affiliation to the trafficking underworld revealed.
I thought about the lady from the park, the one responsible for me and Asher’s abduction.
“Don’t worry about her either,” Davidson said, reading my mind. “We’ll drag her from whatever hole she’s hiding in.” The FBI had received new information on her too, but she’d sincegone underground. I nodded, putting it all to the back of my mind for now.
My mother patted my cheeks and gave Davidson a peck on the lips once she was done with Asher, then we all headed for the kitchen. She helped Asher tie his apron while I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Davidson snagged a beer before leaving us to go watch Sunday football.
“Okay now,” my mother started when I swooped between them to kiss Asher on the cheek. “You get started on the potatoes while I season the chicken tenders. Be sure to—”
Her words were cut off when, after grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter, I swooped back in to kiss Asher on his nose. I jumped out of the way of her swatting hand. Asher grinned like a lunatic.
“Like I was saying, be sure to cut the fries nice and thin. We want them cris—”
I squeezed between them again, reaching for the knife block and kissing him on the corner of his lips. “Okay I’m done.” I moved out of reach to dice my apple on the other side of the kitchen.
“We want them crispy,” she finished. I settled onto the island as they talked and worked, but now I realized I needed a plate. I set my apple and knife down before sneaking over to the cabinet to the right of Asher. My mother was too busy showing him the perfect squash she found at the farmers market to notice me there. I quietly pulled a plate out, then kissed Asher on the other cheek.
I held my plate up when my mother shook her head at me, trying her best not to smile. “I needed a plate.”
“Can’t you eat an apple like normal people do?”
“But then I wouldn’t be able to do this.” I slid my free hand around his nape, and he turned my way for a more meaningful kiss.
