I catch the smile on his lips as he reaches for the blueberries and drops a handful more into the batter. Larissa and Alexis cheer from their perch, clapping their small hands together.
If it wasn’t for the men I can see through the kitchen window patrolling the perimeter in their dark jackets and guns, this could be another life.A normal life.One where Saturday morning pancakes in this house were the norm.
But this is not that life. It’s the one with the guards and gates and guns.
Even so, I want it.
Because I want him.
Nessa notices me first, and her face lights up. She sets down her coffee, walks over to me, and pulls me into a fierce hug.
“You didn’t wake me,” I say.
“I figured you needed some sleep. Come on; Silas made coffee, and it’s actually really fucking good.”
“You said the magic word.Coffee.”
“And it’s the best damn coffee I’ve tasted.” She stops me and says in a low voice, “Seriously, does this man have any faults?”
“Hmm, let me think.” I tap my chin. “He’s a crime lord, so there’s that.”
She tilts her head. “That’s not the deterrent you think it is.”
“He kills people.”
“Badpeople. And only when he has to.”
“I wish he were that selective,” his sister interrupts. “But it also depends on his mood.”
Nessa and I smile as I quietly say so the girls don’t hear, “Well, his gift giving could do with a bit of improvement. Severed fingers aren’t for everyone.”
Nessa needs a moment to absorb that before saying, “But you’ve got to give him ten points for creativity.”
“That’s true.” I shrug. “I guess he doesn’t have any faults then.”
Nessa laughs. “Lucky you. Does he have a brother?”
“Only me, though I think he would’ve much preferred a brother sometimes,” Gia says, looking over her shoulder with a devilish smile.
“You know I can hear you, right?” Silas says.
Gia’s phone begins to buzz, and her eyebrows dip. “Excuse me; I need to take this,” she says, though there’s a flickerof distraction in her voice, almost confusion, like the call has caught her off guard. She leaves quickly and our eyes follow her, but I clock it without being able to place why it bothers me.
Larissa shrieks from her perch on Silas’s shoulders when she sees me. “Auntie Leo.”
“Good morning, Monkey,” I say, walking up to them so I can give her a kiss.
“Silas is making blueberry pancakes. With a hundred blueberries. I counted.”
“You did not count,” Silas says.
“I counted in my head.”
“Yeah, and so did I!” Alexis quickly says, and she looks so much like a smaller version of her mother that I can’t help but smile.
“That’s good enough for me.” He grins.
And when I look up at him, I can’t help but smile too.
