Page 17 of Every Breath

“Yup. Just a thought.”

“What thought is that?”

I point toward her niece with my chin, my voice lowering as I lean my face against her ear. “I’d like one of those.”

Sarah opens her mouth as if she’s about to say something but stops herself. She frowns, nodding as she rubs her hand against the top of my thigh.

As the servers start clearing the table, I realize she hasn’t eaten much throughout dinner, picking through her food as if she’d eaten before she got here. But as far as coffee at Zia Moon, I know she hasn’t had anything else to eat because that’s what Harlow texted me. Sarah only had a cup of coffee. Who knows? Maybe she had an energy bar on the way to the hospital, but then, maybe it’s all the excitement.

Absently, I take my phone out of my jeans pocket and pull up an app that Sarah and I used to check five years ago. She stopped using it after the novelty wore off that first year but I still keep it on my phone out of habit. It helps me with her moods and gives me a heads up when it’s the time of the month I should be giving her space. Spa days for her mean father and son time for Dyami and me. It works for us although the last two months I’ve wondered if the app was off for nothing was right. She was cranky and moody when the app indicated her cycle had been two weeks earlier.

I frown, glancing at Sarah just as Gabe gets up, reminding Dyami and his cousins that it’s still a school day tomorrow. As if on cue, other people start getting up, congratulating Sarah and me before saying good night but not before making arrangements to meet for breakfast at Nana’s house. That would mean a very noisy and busy house in the morning especially since Daniel will be staying there and he’s been looking forward to getting his fill of his mother-in-law’s cooking for the last three months. As Dyami tells Sarah that he’s changed his mind about staying the night at his cousins and that he’s riding with Daniel and Nana back to the house, Sarah gives me a knowing look, one that tells me exactly where she’s staying tonight.

But then we already knew that.

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