"Like his father," she agreed, without missing a beat, and Minna made a face at herself.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make a joke like that."
"Oh!" Aislinn turned to her, dismayed. "Don't say sorry. I don't mind at all. His father really is handsome."
Minna looked at her for a long moment, this tall, bone-colored, unflappable woman who negotiated against sharks for a living, and out here in the sea wind, with the gulls arguing overhead and the kids' knots coming undone behind them, she suddenly looked almost uncertain.
"Are you...are you over him?" she asked. "I'm sorry. Honestly, I can't tell. I've never been in love."
"I..."
"I've seen the other guy. The single dad, chatting you up."
"Oh, you mean Benny's dad? He's nice."
"Nicer than me, you mean?"
The voice came from behind them, and Aislinn's whole body knew it before she'd finished turning around.
Valerio stood on the wharf in a black coat with the wind in his hair, four months thinner around the eyes, looking at her likea man who'd crossed an ocean and wasn't sure he'd be allowed ashore.
"And that's my cue," Minna announced to the sky, "to go babysit Louis and talk to the school, because romantic stuff isn't up my alley." She collected her folder and left, pausing only to give her cousin one look, brief and freighted, on the way past.
Then it was the two of them, and the gulls, and four months.
"I'm sorry about my brother," Aislinn said.
"I'm the one who should be sorry."
"I understand why that made you want to leave. Louis, though..."
"I've talked to him." At her look, he added, "This morning, before the ferry. And asked for his forgiveness. Which he freely gave, because his mother taught him well."
"Oh."
"Will you forgive me?"
"I do." Her hands twisted together. "But...I don't think I'd be a good mother if I just...Louis was really sad."
"I messed up." He said it plainly, no defense attached. "I promise I'll be a better father to him. But I'll need you to teach me how, because this is new to me. Living for others. Being good, and forgiving, like you."
She started to cry.
Right there on the wharf, in front of the postcard town, and he didn't reach for her yet, he just kept going, his voice low and stripped of everything it usually wore.
"I know I've hurt you and Louis." Something Italian broke loose under the English now, low and unguarded, a version of him he only ever let show when there was nothing left to protect. "And I'm asking you to do what I couldn't do right away, when I learned about Viktor. I've already lost you once. I almost lost you and Louis again, because of my stupidity.Ti prego.Please give me—"
She kissed him.
Crying, on her toes, her cold hands on his cold face, and he made a sound like something breaking open, and when she finally pulled away it was only far enough to say it.
"I love you."
"Aislinn." His forehead came down against hers. "I—"
"Have you guys made up?" Louis was running up the wharf at full speed, coat flying, trailed at a distance by Minna and half his class. "Papa, has Mama told you I'm about to become a big brother?"
Valerio went completely still.
