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* * *
Rowan hasn’t stopped talkingsince he got into the car.
“I showed Belle my drawing and she said it was the best she’d ever seen. She asked me to draw her a unicorn and I did. She showed everyone.” Rowan’s chest puffs up. With his chin tilted and his eyes shining with pride, he looks so much like Adam that it kills me. “And then everyone started asking me to draw something for them.”
“That’s great, bud.”
“Niko wrote on her tablet that she was jealous. No one asked her to draw anything.” Rowan grins. “I felt bad so I asked her to draw me a cool design for the skateboard Micheal gave me.” He shakes his head. “But she wasn’t that good. I think she should stick to playing piano.”
Adam’s fingers tighten on the steering wheel, but his voice has an artificial cheerfulness when he says, “Uh-huh.”
Rowan is too sharp and he picks up on the weird mood. “Are you two fighting or something?”
“No, we’re not.”
Rowan scoots to the edge of his seat. “Nova, did you like the swing?”
“I did.”
“Did you see the characters I painted on the foot rest?” Rowan asks in excitement.
My shoulders tighten on impact. I hadnotbeen looking that hard at the footrests as occupied as I was with hurling myself into Adam’s arms.
“Yeah,” I squeak out. “Yeah, it was nice.”
“You didn’t see it, did you?” Rowan asks flatly.
“It was too… dark at the time. But I’ll check it out in the sunlight.”
“Does that mean you’re sleeping over again?” Rowan asks innocently.
I blink and blink and blink. “Well…”
“That’s enough questions, Rowan,” Adam says. “You should be wearing your seatbelt.”
“Sor-rry.” Rowan breaks the word into two sharp syllables.
I place my hand on top of the one Adam has choking the stick shift. He relaxes slightly. Turning his palm over, he interlaces our fingers.
The car falls silent.
No one says anything more until we get into the house.
“Rowan,” Adam calls when his son tries to scamper into his room, “we need to have a family meeting.”
“That sounds scary,” Rowan mumbles.
I slant Adam a look. It’s not lost on me that he’s calling this a family meeting with me present.
He nods as if to tell meI said what I said.
I reserve my comments for later and take a seat in the sofa beside him. Adam pulls our joined hands over his knee. Despite his calm expression, he’s squeezing my hand almost painfully.
I take the pressure, willing to be his stress ball if he needs it.
“Rowan, I spoke to Nova,” Adam glances at me, making sure to include me in the conversation again, “and we felt we should bring this up with you.”
Rowan’s eyes start widening. He glances from my face to Adam’s. “Am I in trouble?”
