“Papà?”
“Ay mijo, perdona. My brain is a laberinto sometimes.”
I get that from him, I guess. “Lucas is an adult. Let him be. It doesn’t mean you failed us just because we didn’t turn out the way you expected.”
“My parents would have never done that,” he says.
“It’s also not 1970, Dad. Time moves along, and we are supposed to change with it too.”
He lets out a breath that sounds as close to a laugh as it’s going to get. “When did you get so wise?”
“Gee, I don’t know—a failed marriage, a job I hated, and starting over at thirty-four does that to you.”
“Hey, Dominic, your mother is calling. ¿Hablamos pronto?”
“Si, dale. La bendición.”
“Dios te bendiga, mi hijo.”
I end the call and place the phone on the rail, holding on to it with both hands. I close my eyes, shaking my head and letting a breath out.
“You were married?” Riley’s small voice snaps me from my thoughts. I open my eyes to find her in front of me like a deer in headlights, two mugs in her hands.
“How much of that conversation did you hear?”
The mugs wobble in her hands as her eyes frantically look around for a way out. “Not much, I promise. I saw you with your head down, and I thought you could use some tea or coffee, so I made both. I didn’t realize you were on the phone, and?—”
I raise my hand to stop her. “It’s okay. Come here.” I tap the chair next to mine, and she does, stretching the mugs my way.
“Coffee or tea?”
“Which one do you want?” I ask her. Something tells me if Riley has coffee now, she’s never going to go back to sleep.
“Um, neither? If I have any form of caffeine, I will be awake until noon tomorrow.” Shetitters.
I knew it. “Fair. I’ll take the tea then. Do you want water? I can grab you one.”
She shakes her head.
“Beer?”
She shakes her head again, sticking her tongue out. “No, thank you.”
“Tequila?” She raises an eyebrow in question. “I got some after the last time you were here and told me that’s your poison of choice.”
Riley leans her chin on her palm, now that her hands are free of mugs, as she studies me. “That was the first day we met.”
I shake my head. “No, second.”
“Oh, I guess so.” She titters again. Why is she this nervous? “Still, that was such a small thing in the shitshow that day was.”
“Nothing about you is a small thing, Riles.”
She’s taken aback, mouth open wide as her eyebrows frown in something I can’t quite put my finger on.
That makes two of us, Riley. Two of us.
“It’s not the first time someone sees things I like and do, but I think it was the first time someone did it in a positive manner.”
