Page 44 of Vow

Kim looked to Andino. He saw her silent question even though she didn’t voice it out loud.

“I have to protect the family,” Andino told her. “I’ll always protect my family, Ma.”

It was how he chose to protect them that might differ from his uncle’s plans. It simply wasn’t time for Andino to explain that little detail, though.

They had other problems.

EIGHT

Haven sat on the park bench, and slapped the card she held against the palm of her hand. She didn’t need to read the words on the card again to know what it said. As it was, she had probably read it one too many times already.

March 10th, noon. Be at the place where I first found you. —A.M.

She didn’t need clarification about where that was. And as much as she wanted to rip that note off her front door when she first found it, Haven hadn’t been able to do that, either. She took the note as a fucking sign, maybe. This was her last chance to say goodbye, and make it count. To really get Andino to understand whatever game he was trying to play with her was over now.

Maybe.

Nothing was ever that simple, though.

She heard footsteps approaching on the trail, but didn’t need to look up to know it was him. She had always been able to feel his eyes on her long before he ever spoke to her. Despite everything, that was one thing that hadn’t changed. Even if she wished it would.

“Right on time,” Haven said, glancing up from her hands in her lap.

Snaps stood close to Andino’s side with a stick in his mouth the size of a human arm. His dark eyes stared at Haven, waiting for her to greet him. She couldn’t help but put her hand out to the dog who then dropped his stick, and came forward all at once to get his love from her.

Short, yet soft, fur met Haven’s fingertips as she took her time greeting the pup. Snaps sat like the good boy he was, and accepted her silent hello with a wiggling tail against the cold ground.

Andino, on the other hand, had yet to say a word. Not that Haven was very surprised about that. She focused on Snaps for the moment. It was easier. The dog was far less complicated than the man he was always walking beside.

Or, that’s what she found.

Finally, Andino spoke. And even then, Haven chose to keep her attention on Snaps. “I wasn’t even sure if you were going to come today.”

“I shouldn’t have,” she replied.

Andino made a noise in the back of his throat. “That’s fair. But here you are, so that’s what matters, isn’t it?”

Was that what he thought?

Haven had news for him.

“You seem to be under some kind of impression that just because you make a demand, Andino, I must always follow it,” Haven said, glancing up at him. Unsurprisingly, he was staring right at her, entirely unashamed. In some cases, that made it easier for her to see what he was truly feeling when he made such a great effort to hide it, but not today. Now, he was a blank slate, and she hated that more than anything else. “I’m my own person, Andino, and I have my own life. I came today because I wanted to, and nothing more.”

Andino cocked his head to the side a bit, and his brow dipped. “Why did you want to come, then?”

“Maybe to tell you enough is enough. Or to ask my own questions. There’s a lot of reasons, Andino. And I doubt that even one of those reasons will match up to yours.”

He gave her one of his crooked smiles. A look she thought could do wonders for a woman’s body without meaning to at all. She was no fucking exception to that rule, even if it did make her weak to admit it.

She could hide it, though.

Therein lied the difference.

“But you didn’t have to come today to say anything to me or ask me a question if that’s what you needed or wanted to do,” he countered. “You have my phone number—though you barely use it anymore—and you know I’ll answer for you. If all you wanted to do was get something off your chest, and make sure to stay the hell away from me, you easily could have made a phone call. You didn’t need to come all the way out here in the cold to meet me on jogging trails, Haven.”

Did he want a pat on the back for figuring that out?

A congrats of some sort?