Page 107 of Worth of Waste

He liked that she was safe with his son.

Dino parked his car and wasted no time making his way inside. He found his son sleeping in the upstairs loft, tucked into Karen’s side with his little thumb stuck firmly in his mouth. Junior usually slept by himself, but Dino didn’t mind.

He undressed down to his T-shirt and boxer-briefs, crawling into bed to be closer to his heart and soul.

He no longer held onto those things.

He’d given them to people much more worthy of them than he had ever been.

Dino

THE wedding—one of the final things Dino was waiting for—was only days away. Maybe that was why Dino’s mind was so distracted, instead of focused on the song Junior was singing that Karen had taken a whole week to teach him.

Guilt climbed up his spine with punishing steps when Junior stopped singing, glanced up at his father expectantly, and Dino couldn’t even remember what song his son had sang.

His distraction was not missed by Karen who shot him with a curious but concerned look. He shook his head, wanting to brush off whatever concern she might be feeling, but knew at the same time, it probably wouldn’t do him very much good.

She was too smart for her own good.

She knew him too well.

“Itsy Bitsy Spider,” Karen mouthed.

“Thanks,” he said back.

“Daddy, do you like Junior’s song?” his toddler asked again.

Dino nodded, amused that his son had taken to talking about himself in the third person again. It was something he did on and off, depending on Karen’s tolerance for it. Sometimes she let it slide, other times she corrected him on it. Dino went with whatever Karen was doing about it that day.

“I loved it,” Dino said.

Junior smiled widely.

Always so proud.

Always so grateful.

“Here, J, go take a cookie and play in the sunroom,” Karen said quietly.

Junior took the chocolate chip cookie his mother offered, and off he went without question, though he did toss a look over his shoulder to see if anyone was following him. Specifically, he looked to Dino.

Dino would follow along soon.

He had a feeling Karen wanted to talk.

He wasn’t wrong.

“What’s up?” Karen asked.

Dino reached for her hand, and once he had a hold of it, he tugged gently, pulling her down to his side on the couch. Closer was better—she calmed him like she always had. “Busy week, lots of things are happening next week.”

“Like what?”

“My sister’s wedding.”

Karen’s eyes grew wider. “Oh. But that’s good, right?”

Dino nodded. “Sure.”