Page 206 of Branded
It was comfortable.
And…as he led me back down the hall toward the staircase, I saw there was a door closed in the hall.
Raph noticed my hesitation.
And I watched him battle, expecting him to lead me on, back downstairs, back into the kitchen and the garage and to my car so that I could drive home.
But then he used his free hand to grip the knob, to turn it.
And…my heart squeezed tight, so tight that I actually went dizzy for a moment. But just a moment because then I was able to pull myself together and study the nursery as he flicked on the lights.
Wide wooden letters spelling the name Luca.
Fuck.
“I haven’t been in here, not since I found out,” he said softly.
“Luca is a beautiful name,” I whispered.
“My grandfather’s name.”
Fuck, I wished again that I could kill that bitch.
“It’s beautiful.”
He nodded, taking a step inside, as though proving to himself that he could, and when that was accomplished, he nodded again, just slightly.
Like he’d just ticked off an item on his to-do list.
Or maybe, he was just trying to survive doing something that was difficult, something that he hadn’t been able to do up until that point.
Definitely that.
I squeezed his fingers, and he tore his gaze from the room—from the crib, bookcases, rocking chair, changing table, from the copious stuffed animals and blankets and clothes, the cozy rug—to me.
“Fancy a hot chocolate?”
I blinked.
“I make a mean hot cocoa,” he said, sliding his fingers up my arm, coming close and tucking me under his shoulder. “Do you want one?”
His tone was soft, the pain in his eyes was dimmer than I’d ever seen, as if by opening that door and stepping inside had brought everything up, but that bringing hadn’t flayed him open. Hadn’t exposed him to all that hurt again. Grief still present, a grief that would always be there, I knew, because he’d lost a dream, future, a deeply woven hope. But it was tempered, as time often allowed, as looking forward to new dreams, new futures, new hopes did the same.
Another layer of concrete.
Looking forward not back, not down.
Looking into the beautiful blue eyes of a man I liked so, so much.
“Yes,” I whispered. “I’d like that hot chocolate.”
Twenty-Five
Raph
It was 5:59 P.M., and I was walking up the steps that led to Beth’s front door.
She’d stayed at my place last night.
