Page 23 of One Last Time

He always did.

One baby.

One single, tiny growing baby.

Their boy.

Those were the only thoughts racing through Haven’s mind as Andino helped her down the three steps leading away from the clinic to where a waiting town car sat running on the curb. The driver in the front seat—not their usual man, Nate, but someone else she recognized—didn’t even bother to get out because Andino stepped up to the back and opened the rear door.

He kept a hand on the door while Haven climbed into the back of the car. She was about to move over to let her husband inside the vehicle as well when she realized he hadn’t actually moved at all.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

Andino gave her a rueful smile. “I’ll follow behind later.”

What?

“What are you—”

“Business,” he replied simply. “I’ve been waiting for word on something. It came in while we were waiting inside for our results, but I didn’t want to bring it up. Today was important, babe.”

“Still is, Andi.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but so is keeping you, the girls, and my little guy safe, hmm?”

The stress left her with a hard exhale. For a long while, the two of them stared at one another. Her, inside the car. Him, standing outside on the curb in his suit.

He always looked like he owned the city.

She supposed in a way, he did.

“Is it …” Haven let her words trail off, considering how she wanted to pose the question. “Is it about what happened a while back at the park?”

It wasn’t like she had forgotten about that. Quite the opposite, really. The more time passed, well, it was never too far from her mind, really. Thing was, even if it pissed her off, she knew Andino would handle it.

It’s just what he did.

“It’s just business, babe.”

His mouth said one thing. His eyes said another.

Haven chose not to press for more. They all had to make those choices.

“Be safe. And come home.”

Andino shrugged one shoulder. “It’s the only place I want to go when the day is over, Haven.”

Yeah.

Her, too.

THIRTEEN

Andino watched the minute hand on his watch tick past the twelve as he fixed the gold cufflink at his wrist just because. He wasn’t exactly the type to fidget because he thought it was beneath him, honestly, but there were times when it just could not be helped. Now was one of those times.

His worst enemy was not actually his attitude or asshole nature despite what others liked to say. In fact, it was his boredom. He jokingly blamed that on his parents and their insane need to feed into whatever he’d wanted as a child—now that he was an adult, he expected everyone around him to still do the same they had. The worse the boredom became, the quicker he was to simply leave a situation. Most times, that wasn’t a problem being who he was and all.

Not tonight, however.