Page 87 of Golden Touch
I laugh, but there’s some truth to it. Iamthe forgotten middle child.
“Let’s try something,” my mother says, walking toward me. Suddenly, there’s a baby in my arms.
“Hey, warn a guy.” I cradle my niece’s warm weight against my chest. “I don’t know what the heck I’m doing with babies.”
She is cute, though, staring up at me with wide eyes.
“Nobody ever knows what they’re doing until the moment they need to learn. But the baby looks good on you, Nash. I think you should have one, too.”
I snort. “This feels like peer pressure. Do you have a new grandma addiction?”
“Definitely,” she says. “I’ll be looking for my next fix real soon.”
“At least you’re honest about it.”
“Oh, I am. But when will you be honest?”
“Me? I’m very honest.”
“Not about your own needs,” she says quietly. “You pass yourself off as a loner—and happier working in Boston, away from the family who loves you.”
“It’s not that far down the highway, Ma,” I say, just to shut her up. “Stop by any time.”
“Livia seems great,” she says with absolutely no subtlety. “She has a spark to her that suits you.”
“I happen to agree with that.”
“So how long have you two been together?”
Lord, she’s nosy. But Livia is one of my favorite topics lately, so I don’t mind as much as I usually would. “That’s the funny thing. It hasn’t been very long at all. But I look at her and I see someone I know well.”
“Oh honey.” Her eyes get dreamy. “I’ve never heard you talk about a girl like that. Then again, you’re usually in Boston, where it’s harder for me to be nosy.”
“And you wonder why I don’t move back.”
She laughs. “Touché. Now hang onto that baby a moment longer so I can get out the brownies I brought for dessert.”
“All right.” I glance down at my niece, whose eyelids are getting heavy. “I’m sorry you’re too young for grandma’s brownies. They are spectacular.”
She gazes up at me sleepily. And I find myself wondering whether Livia wants children.
If I’m lucky, we’ll get the chance to have that conversation someday. Because I want that. I wantallthe chances. I only wonder if she’ll give them to me.
CHAPTER 39
LIVIA
Nash is very quiet on the way back to the brewery. So quiet that it’s making me twitchy. Deep male silences tend to fill me with dread.
“Um, thank you for dinner and for bringing me along tonight,” I say.
He doesn’t reply. He just reaches across the truck and squeezes my knee.
Hmm. “Hope you had an okay time. I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”
He turns to me in surprise. “Of course not. Why the hell would you think that?”
“I don’t know,” I say lamely. “You seem…quiet.” I don’t add that it’s the same variety of silence that used to foreshadow anger and violence from Razor.
