Page 177 of The Encore’s Crown

That reaches her. I see it in the way her anger finally gives. She hooks her fingers into the edge of my towel and pulls me closer. I glance at the shattered planter across the room.

“You're cleaning that up,” I tease.

She shoves me. I catch her around the waist before she gets far and pull her against me, her laugh breaking free as I kiss her.

The secrecy isn’t over yet but at least it has an expiration date.

Chapter 61

A Murder Of Crows

Kiri

Afew nights later, I’m flat on my back trying to remember how breathing works. Natalia is sprawled across me, one smooth leg tangled between mine, her hair sticking to her neck and my chest. Sweat still clings to the air, tangled with her perfume and the candle she insisted would make my apartment feel less like a divorced man lived here.

A divorced man would have had the sense to stop before nearly dying. Every time we do this, it gets better. Hotter. More impossible to come back from. We learn another sound, another weakness, another way to push each other so far past sanity that afterward I’m surprised either of us can still form sentences. At this rate, I’m genuinely concerned I won’t survive the relationship.

I pull her farther over me. She settles against my chest with a smug little noise, her cheek pressed above my heart. My phone vibrates across the nightstand. We both ignore it. It stops, then immediately starts again.

Natalia groans. “Whoever that is, I hate them.”

I reach over her and grab the phone.

Rithy.

I answer, careful not to move her.

“What?”

He says something in Khmer, his voice quieter than usual. I answer in the same language without thinking, the words coming fast and easy while Natalia’s fingers drift over the ink along my side.

Rithy reminds me of the date. Ma’s birthday is this week. We’re both in Seattle for once. No tour or recording sessions in different cities. Which means there's no excuse to send flowers, transfer money and promise we’ll make it up to her when things calm down.

Things never calm down.

He asks if I want to go over together. If Dad’s out, we can bring the cake and let Ma enjoy it without him bitching about crumbs or frosting getting on something. If he’s there, we’ll endure him for the required amount of time. No cake, but at least she’ll get to see us. I stare at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” I say eventually. “Yeah, we should.”

Rithy pauses before asking if I’m bringing Natalia. My eyes drop to her. She’s stopped tracing the lines on my body. She watches my face even though she can’t understand the conversation. Normally, the answer would be no. I’d invent something. Tell her Rithy needed me. Say we had band business. Disappear for a few hours, take Ma her cake, give her enough money to cover whatever Dad drank away that month and leave before he found a reason to start something.

Then I’d come back here and bury the entire thing beneath Natalia’s body until I didn’t have to think about where I came from. I look down at the woman curled against me. The woman I promised I'd stop hiding.

“Maybe,” I tell him.

Rithy goes silent. He tells me to call him tomorrow and let him know my answer, then hangs up. The room feels different when I lower the phone. Uncomfortably still. Natalia props her chin on my chest.

“What was that about?”

I set the phone facedown on the nightstand and drag a hand over my face. She waits, studying me with those huge brown eyes that always make me feel like she can see the answer before I decide whether to lie.

“It’s Ma’s birthday this week,” I say. “Rith and I happen to be home at the same time, so we’re planning to go see her.”

Natalia goes stiff against me. Only slightly, but I feel it.

“Oh.” She slips off my chest and settles beside me. “That’s nice. You should go. I’m sure she’ll be happy to have both of you there.”

“She will.”