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Narrowing his eyes, he asks, “You sure?”
“Of course.”
“How have you been sleeping?”
Since my father’s death, my nightmares have changed. Now he stands in the flames, and he doesn’t do a thing to try and save me. Sometimes, he laughs and tells me I deserve the scars. Other times, he just stands there mute.
“I keep busy during the day, so I crash out at night.”
What I really want to say is that I miss him next to me. I miss him inside me. I miss falling asleep in his arms and waking up with him, starting my day with him before anyone else.
“How are you holding up in here?”
He has no visible signs of fighting on him, but I’m not naïve enough to believe he’s not hiding something.
“I’m good. Days are slow and nights are even longer.”
“Mason not keeping you warm and reading you bedtime stories?”
He snorts, and it sparks joy in me to see him lighten up.
“Nah, all I hear from him is how much he misses Aspen and what he wants to do to Effie for putting us in here.”
“I couldn’t imagine being in here and having someone on the outside. It must make things worse,” I say, hoping he hears the double meaning.
He meets my eyes and just for once, I want him to say what I need to hear. But he shrugs and looks to Rayna on his lap. He asks her question after question, and I excuse myself and head to the vending machine. I take my time as I do each time I come here so Leo can spend some one-on-one time with his daughter. This is killing him to be away from her.
“You got a cute family. Your man is certainly hot.”
Over my shoulder, a short woman with black curls looks between me and Leo and I frown. She thinks Leo is mine and Rayna is our child.
Not wanting to give her any details, I murmur, “Thanks.”
Shoving the last of my change in the slot, I pick out various candy bars and chips and collect my haul before the woman can say anything else.
“Who was the woman you were talking to?” Leo asks.
“I have no idea and I wasn’t talking to her. She just said what a cute a family I had.”
“What did you say?” he inquires.
“I remember you told me never to tell anyone here anything, so I just said thanks and moved on.”
He nods slowly and I wait for him to correct me, but it doesn’t come.
“Oh, before I forget, you got a letter from the school about Rayna starting kindergarten next year. I gave it to your mom to sort out since she’s Rayna’s family.”
“School already?”
“As of next year, yeah.”
“It’s gone by so fast,” he murmurs. He looks from Rayna to me and asks, “How well did you do at school? You went to college, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t finish, as you know.”
“Yeah, but you’re smart, yeah? You must’ve been to get into college.”
“What are you thinking?”
