Page 42 of Worth of Waste

“Letting me be here. Allowing me to spend time with you and him. Listening to my apology. All of it, really.”

“I never planned on doing anything different.”

“I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had, you know?”

Karen shook her head. “You were right, Dino. All those months ago when you called and said the fact you loved me meant I owed you at least five minutes—you never got those five minutes. I’ve been waiting all this time just to give them to you.”

His thumb stilled. “Yeah?”

“All this time.”

“I never told you before, but you’re amazing.”

Karen’s lips curved into a smile. “Come on—save the charm for another day, Dino.”

“No charm. I’m leaving us up to you. So, no charm, nothing like that.”

“Huh.”

“Scout’s honor,” Dino murmured, winking.

Karen only half believed him.

She didn’t mind the charm.

“Let me finish getting dinner ready, and then we can talk some more if you want,” she said.

Dino let her go, and she felt the loss instantly, almost wishing she hadn’t said a thing, and instead, kept him close. He stepped back, waving at the kitchen sink where the potatoes were still waiting to be peeled and washed.

“Go for it,” he told her. “I look forward to a decent meal for the first time in a year and a half.”

“Prison food is that bad, huh?”

“Worse. So much worse.”

Karen didn’t press him for more information, but only because Dino had already turned around and was heading back for the living room. He scooped a small Styrofoam packet—it looked like it was big enough to hold maybe a cheeseburger—off the table. She hadn’t asked what was inside of it earlier, but maybe it was something he had been waiting to eat and picked up on his way to visit her and Junior.

“He can have something before dinner, right?” Dino asked over his shoulder.

“Depends on what it is, Dino.”

“Something he’ll like.”

“That tells me nothing.”

Dino didn’t say anything more, and Karen perked at the sound of her son’s squeals when he got his father back in his line of vision again. Already, Karen knew Junior was happy just to be around his father. There was a connection there, and as long as it was fed and nourished, it would only keep growing.

That was pretty amazing.

Junior deserved his father.

Dino deserved his son.

“Dino, what is it?” Karen shouted over her shoulder.

“Just a cupcake.”

A what?