Page 28 of One Second After Another

In a lot of damn ways.

“Because I had to,” she said, knowing all too well it wouldn’t satisfy him, but it also wasn’t a lie. “I left because I had to.”

“That’s ...” Cross’s brow furrowed. “Well, why?”

“Because it was the right thing to do. The only thing I could do.”

“Do what, though?”

“Leave,” she replied.

Cross let out a huff, gaze narrowing in on her again with a new gleam. “I know what you’re doing.”

Penny grinned. “Yeah?”

“Saying the truth.”

“But?”

“Without details,” he said, defeated.

She only shrugged.

Fair was fair.

Her godson might have card tricks of his own—although being able to read people at his age was way more amazing than just a card trick—but she had a few, too.

Cross shook his head. “Uncle Luca told them you were different.”

That made her pause.

All over.

Penny turned to stone at just the mere mention of Luca. She had been content to come back to this place, say goodbye and hope, and then leave it all behind if that’s what came of her choices. She’d forced herself to stop thinking about the people she kept leaving behind, too. Sacrifices had to be made, after all.

That didn’t stop it from hurting.

Cross observed her in silent stillness, waiting for a reply from her that wouldn’t come. It couldn’t. “He likes you a lot, too.”

Penny’s throat flexed when she managed to ask, “What?”

“Uncle Luca. When people miss things—things that mean something—their eyes change. More distant. Like they’re looking at something far away. Something I can’t see. You did what he did when he told them he found you. But you did it now because I talked about him. See, same thing.”

This kid was ... something else.

She also couldn’t afford to stand there and keep talking to him even though every single molecule in her being wanted to do exactly that. He was amazing. It took a single conversation with the kid to realize just how much she had missed out on where he was concerned.

“I really should go,” Penny said, moving a step deeper into the forest. The same way she had come.

The shout from behind her made her next step hesitate.

“Cross! Get back to the house, son! Time to eat!”

Penny’s head snapped to the side, gaze darting over her shoulder through the trees to find the form of a man coming to stand on the rear porch of the three-level home. Like his son, she hadn’t laid eyes on Nazio in as many years.

Not much had changed.

He was older, yes, but his playful grin as he called for his child still felt like a welcomed sight to her.