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“I’d change that if it were appropriate,” he said.
She smiled. “You’re not the only one.” She took a deep breath. “But for now, you are in fact fully clothed. As far as Olivia knows, you’re a friend who gave us a ride to the hospital and came back this morning to check on her. There’s no harm in some pancakes and coffee.”
“Well, now I have to stay,” he said. “You said the P word.”
She laughed. “You might just be a natural with this whole kid thing.”
“Mommy?”
Ruby turned toward the sound of her daughter’s voice and stood. “Good morning, honey. How are you feeling?”
“Good.” She was holding the stuffed bear Roman had brought her in one hand, her hair disheveled, but she looked better, her cheeks no longer flushed, her eyes clear.
Ruby opened her arms and Olivia walked into them. It was one of her favorite things about being a mom — the way she was a homing beacon for her daughter and vice versa.
The way they belonged together.
Someday Olivia would be a woman. She might forget this belonging.
But Ruby never would.
She squeezed her daughter, breathed in her scent. Then she pulled back to lay a hand on Olivia’s forehead. “Feels like the fever’s gone. Want some pancakes?”
Olivia’s gaze slid to Roman. “Can Roman have pancakes too?”
“I think it’s the least we can do after he gave us a ride to the hospital,” Ruby said.
“That was nice,” Olivia said. “He must be a good friend because you said good friends always make sure their friends are okay.”
“I did say that.” She looked at Roman, sitting on the couch like a battered giant in a dollhouse, smiling like he’d just won a trophy. “And you’re right. Roman is a very good friend.”
27
ROMAN
He should have left after breakfast.
Ruby made pancakes in the small kitchen while Olivia sat on the floor, scribbling in her coloring book and chattering to Roman about all manner of things. She told him how she was trying to get her mom to let her have a cat and talked to him about her teacher Ms. Moretti and how they had a pet turtle in the classroom. She told him that her Aunt Brooke walked around her apartment in her underwear, something that caused Ruby to laughingly admonish her, and about how her Grampa gave her candy after dinner and told her not to tell her mom.
Rather than it being annoying, he was surprised to find the stream of soft chatter sweet and soothing, like the trickle of water in a woodland creek, constant and lyrical.
The pancakes were delicious and Roman didn't even mind crowding his body into the small dining room table to eat with Ruby and Olivia.
He tried to remember the last time he’d felt so content and couldn’t.
He’d meant to leave after breakfast, but Olivia started telling him about her favorite movie,The Princess Bride, and then about her second favorite movie,The NeverEnding Story. They’d been favorites of Ruby's mother and now they were Olivia’s favorites too.
The mention of Ruby’s mom caused a fresh thrum of guilt to course through Roman’s body. He should have told Ruby about his business — illegal though it was — on their first date at the Chinese restaurant. Every moment since then, starting with their heated kiss in the crowded entry to Ruby’s apartment after dinner, had been fueled by either passion or crisis.
Now he’d waited too long. When he did finally tell her, she would think he'd withheld the information intentionally.
And the longer he waited, the worse it would be.
He insisted on doing the dishes after breakfast while Ruby sat on the couch and colored with Olivia. When he finished, he started to say his goodbyes, but Olivia had already put the Neverending Story on TV and begged Ruby to let Roman stay.
Roman tried to make an excuse to leave, wanting to give Ruby an out if she was ready for him to go, but she asked him to stay and it was clear from the way she looked at him that she meant it.
Against his better judgment — par for the course when it came to Ruby it seemed — he sent Max back to his apartment for a change of clothes and settled onto the couch to watch the movie with Ruby and Olivia.
