Page 120 of Say My Name

“You like clear terms.”

“I also like lawyers.”

“You don’t need independent counsel to text me.”

“That remains to be seen.”

I close my fingers around hers instead of shaking, the warmth of her palm a sudden anchor. “I want to see you tonight. The timing doesn’t matter.”

Her hand tightens in mine. “I want you to stay.”

She doesn’t add a reason.

Cliff and Rachel planned this Chicago weekend a month ago so they could take Sophie and Theo to the Field Museum and have lunch with Elena and me. Halfway through that lunch, Theo rejects his chair, his mother, his father, and every reasonable interpretation of restaurant seating before climbing into my lap.

“Traitor,” Cliff tells him.

Theo settles against my chest with the satisfaction of a man who has successfully completed a hostile takeover.

“He has excellent judgment,” I say.

“He knows you’ll let him steal your food.”

“I don’t steal,” Theo says firmly.

Rachel looks over the top of her menu. “What do you call taking fries off someone else’s plate without asking?”

“Sharing.”

Elena laughs beside her, and my attention shifts before I can stop it.

We’re seated around a wide table on the restaurant patio, shielded from the afternoon sun by a large umbrella. Cliff and Rachel are across from me. Elena sits at the other end beside Rachel—close enough for me to hear their conversation, but far enough away that I have no acceptable reason to keep looking at her.

I do it anyway.

This is the first time we’ve been around her family since we stopped attaching fertility dates to every invitation. Elena has been in my home twice this week simply because she wanted to be there.

Once, we had sex against the wall inside my front door.

The other time, we ate dinner and argued about whether her projections accounted for a regulatory delay. She fell asleep on my couch with her feet in my lap. I carried her upstairs, and when she woke as I put her in my bed, she pulled me down beside her.

I’m still deciding which night affected me more.

“Uncle Dominic.”

Sophie’s voice cuts through my thoughts.

I turn toward her. “Yes?”

“You’re on my team.”

“I didn’t know you had established teams.”

“They have.”

“What are we playing?”

“I Spy.”