Page 93 of Worth of Waste

“I’d like to help more,” Dino admitted.

“Giving me money—”

“Not you, the baby.”

Karen rolled her eyes. “It’s the same thing, because you mean for me to control the cash.”

Dino shrugged. “For the baby.”

“You’re not being sneaky enough about this. I can see right through it.”

“Fine,” Dino said heavily. “But it’s right there. All you have to do is ask.”

Not yet.

“He understands he is not allowed to bite people,” she said to herself.

“Maybe he’s picking up on your stress lately, too.”

That was a good point.

Then, Dino added just as quickly, “Why don’t you … I don’t know, take some time off, get away with him for a bit?”

He’d offered the suggestion rather carefully, but it felt laced with something Karen couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“What do you mean?” Karen asked.

Dino made a dismissive sound, almost as if to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal when he said, “You know, use some of your vacation time for whatever. Say it’s an emergency, they won’t know the difference. Hell, the cabin is an hour and a half away, out in the middle of nowhere, and private. You could stay there for a while even. Get away from the world.”

That sounded wonderful, actually.

It was probably exactly what she and the baby needed.

Still, something in Dino’s voice was just … off.

She sat up in his lap, and pushed off him to then sit back on her own side of the couch. Dino watched her from the side, and by the look on his face, Karen knew she had been right.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

A month ago, they had gone to the carnival, and had a great night out with their son. Sure, summer was here, and the cabin would be a great way to spend it with her son, but she didn’t think that was what Dino was trying to get her to do.

Something just told her to look deeper.

Something inside demanded she ask more questions.

Dino met her gaze, never dropping it as he said, “Everything is fine.”

“Here, sure, but tell me about there.”

There was the Outfit.

There was his other life.

There was people he rarely talked about.

There was a strange and unknown place to her.

A tic worked in Dino’s jaw, an action Karen recognized as his anxiety. He had very few tells, but that was absolutely one of them.