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“He gave me this lollipop,” she says, showing Nathan a bright red one.
“Milo keeps those stashed away in the kitchen for when he’s got one of his midnight cravings again,” Kai whispers into my ear.
And I have to say, I’m not even mad I’m being fed all these details I never knew I needed.
Everything’s suddenly starting to make sense.
“Ilovestrawberry. It’s my favorite!” Rory excitedly waves it around.
“When all of this is over and you’re done living with Auntie, I’ll take you to an ice cream shop and you can have as many strawberry scoops as you like. Okay?”
Her face lights up like fireworks. The kind that brings joy to even the most fucked-up souls. “Really?”
Her smile is contagious as Nathan begins to grin. “Pinky promise.” He hooks his pinky around hers again. “Swear on my life.”
“Yay!”
When he puts her down, he momentarily glances at me, and for a moment, all the pain and darkness in his eyes are back.
As though he means to tell me everything there is to know about him with just one single look.
A guy dead set on protecting the only family he has left.
And it breaks all the resolve and hatred I have burning within me.
Rory grabs his hand and drags him with her. “C’mon! I’ve gotta show you the unicorn in Milo’s room!”
“Unicorn?” Nathan narrows his eyes at Milo.
He simply shrugs with a big old smile as we head toward his room upstairs. Sure enough, there’s a human-sized stuffed unicorn right in the middle of his room. “Bought it on the way to her place. I figured she might want a friend while she waited here for you.”
“You’re nuts,” Nathan jests, shaking his head at Milo.
We all gaze in wonder at a little girl having the time of her life on an imaginary rainbow ride.
Nathan finally approaches us and looks at Kai first. “Thank you for helping out.”
“It was nothing,” Kai says.
“Eh, we just stole some shit and sold it for cash, big deal,” Milo says.
“I mean it,” he adds.
Kai plants a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got you.”
“Right now, you’re the only family I’ve got left,” Nathan says, sighing. “Let’s just hope they don’t come after the rest of my family too.”
“Won’t let that happen,” Kai says, watching Rory jump off the unicorn’s head, only to jump right back onto its back.
“We’ll be there to cover you both,” Milo says.
They embrace in a sort of bro-hug. “Phantoms stay Phantoms. Even into death.”
Suddenly, my stomach roars, and it’s the worst timing ever.
Because all three of them are now looking at me like I interrupted their private time together.
Milo smiles and lifts his head. “Hungry?”
