Page 386 of Romeo

The thought made me smile.

Angel noticed. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“That wasn’t nothing.”

“You and Jasper are more alike than either of you would probably enjoy hearing.”

His expression went flat. “Take it back.”

I laughed. Really laughed. It hurt afterward because everything inside me was still too tight, but it felt good anyway.

Angel watched me, and the strange look that crossed his face made the laughter fade. “What?”

He shook his head.

“No. You don’t get to do that,” I told him.

“Do what?”

“Look at me like that and then say nothing.”

He hesitated. “You look like her when you laugh.”

The room went quiet again.

I didn’t have to ask who; I knew he was talking about my mother.

Kaylah.

I looked down at my hands. “Do you have pictures?”

“Yeah.”

My head came up.

He already had his phone out, but he didn’t approach. Instead, he unlocked it, found whatever he was looking for, and held it toward me from where he stood.

I crossed the space between us enough to take the phone.

The woman on the screen was younger than I expected. Beautiful. Brown hair. Bright eyes. A smile that looked like she had been caught in the middle of laughing at whoever held the camera.

I stared.

This was different from Angel’s photograph. I had studied him looking for myself. With her, I didn’t have to look very hard.

“Oh.”

Angel said nothing.

I swiped carefully and found another. Kaylah sitting on the hood of a car. Another with two little girls I knew had to be Kinsley and Kyllian. Another where she looked directly into the camera with the expression of someone seconds away from doing something she had been told not to do.

I smiled despite myself. “I have that face.”

“Yeah.”

“Jasper hates that face.”