Page 36 of Forever: The Companion

THIRTEEN

“So, you’ve got, what, two more days there?”

Lucia smiled at her brother on the screen, nodding. “Yep.”

“Can’t wait!”

In the background of the video chat, Lucia watched as Diego passed by the chair John was currently using. She wasn’t at all surprised to see the kid at his house, considering John and Siena—plus their kids—lived only a couple of blocks away from Rose, her husband, and Diego. The teenager often went to John’s place to hang out, play games, or just do whatever. And John was happy to keep an eye on him.

For whatever reason, Diego didn’t take as easily to his sister’s spouse as he did for … well, Lucia, when she’d come into Renzo’s life.

Renzo blamed the fact that Diego had been a lot younger when Lucia had come around, and he hadn’t been the type to be jealous back then. Rose’s husband came along when he was twelve, they married shortly after he’d turned thirteen, and he was still trying to adjust to this man—who, Lucia thought after meeting and spending time with him, was quite kind, and loved Rose to death—who took up a lot of his sister’s time, and was now the head of the house.

They didn’t fight.

Diego didn’t … cause problems.

Neither did Rose’s husband, considering the man didn’t even discipline Diego. He left all that up to Rose and Renzo, and never said a word edgewise about it. It was clear he cared a lot about Diego and tried to give him space, but something was still there.

A tension was definitely there.

They were working on it.

“How’s he been the last week?” she asked, lowering her voice when she saw in the corner of the screen that Diego had left the kitchen area. “He hasn’t been able to talk to Ren too much, so I wondered if maybe—”

“He’s doing fine.”

“Oh, well, good.”

John shrugged. “Sometimes, you have to give teenagers a bit of time to work out whatever thing they’re going through. It’s not like adults can understand, you know? Stuff that seems petty or silly to us might mean their entire lives are ending.”

“Bit dramatic.”

“And that’s exactly my point. You have to at least try to see something from their perspective if you want to understand why they react the way they do. Things would go a lot smoother, in that case.”

Yeah.

She supposed he might be right. Not that she would admit it out loud. If she did, her brother’s ego would grow, like most men’s, and that would be yet another thing Lucia would have to deal with. Today was not the day for that. Tomorrow didn’t look great, either.

“He talked to Ren this morning,” John said.

“I know, for like an hour.”

“He misses him.”

Clearly.

They missed everyone at home, too.

“Besides, I heard he couldn’t talk to Ren,” John added, “because someone decided you all needed to turn off your phones and just enjoy your vacation, huh? What happened to that, seeing as you’re on here, chatting with me right now?”

Lucia grinned. “You’re not wrong.”

“So?”

Damn her brother.

“We might have come to the mutual conclusion this morning that both of us are homesick like nothing else. We’re not used to being so unplugged from everyone—at least not willingly like this. Renzo has to leave his phone behind when he takes a job, but that’s different. Anyway, we wanted to call and say hello to some people.”