Page 102 of Duty

“The restaurant for most of the evening.”

“What time are you leaving there?”

“Likely midnight,” he replied.

Which meant, he had a lot of work going on. Andino never said that was the case, other than alluding to it, but he only stayed late at the restaurant when he had work to do.

“And about the other day,” he added.

“What do you mean?”

“A few days ago—when my mother showed up at my place.”

Haven frowned.

Yeah, that.

How could she forget that?

“What about it?”

Andino cleared his throat. “I apologize for what she said right before you left. I know it made you uncomfortable, but I also don’t think she meant it the way it come out. That’s not my mom to be purposefully mean, or to hurt someone else. She’s not like that. I think she was genuinely caught off guard just because—”

“You’ve literally never told her about me.”

“Kind of, yeah.”

And that’s what bothered Haven the most.

Hurt the most, really.

Maybe she shouldn’t have automatically expected Andino to open his mouth, and spill the fact he had been seeing Haven to his family. She didn’t know his people, or the dynamics of their family, for that matter. And they were only just starting back into this thing together after taking that break away from one another.

A break she chose.

Haven had to keep reminding herself of that fact.

“I don’t expect them to know,” she said quietly. “But I just … I guess it took me off guard, too. Not once in the entire time we were seeing each other, you didn’t think to mention me to any of them? I mean, we never visited anyone, and you didn’t bring me around but … I don’t know.”

“I wanted to,” he said.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Maybe I don’t share well when it comes to things that are mine,” Andino muttered. “Who knows?”

Haven rolled her eyes. “That’s not a good answer.”

“I know.” Andino sighed, and said, “Listen, I have a guy coming in for a meeting in five minutes—we’ll finish this later, yeah?”

“If I can get out of here early enough.”

“All right, baby. Bye.”

“Bye, Andino.”

Haven hung up the phone, and although she was smiling, there was still a heaviness settling deeper into her heart. It had been growing heavier by the day, and started right about the time when she left Andino’s home.

She didn’t know how to shake it.