Page 53 of Little Deer
Amara smiles. “Sure. Doing something with my hands always helps me work through things anyway.”
“I already got a whiteboard and all the other shit you asked for down there,” Sofia adds. Then she looks at me and grins. “And we all want to hear how the kiss with Massimo was, darling.”
My face heats. Uh oh. How much did they hear?
“And I want to know about whatever Zeno was whispering to you on the way up here,” Rori adds to Kida. My head whips toward my sister and her face heats, a guilty look in her eyes. “Oh, yeah, don’t think you managed to keep that under wraps, missy.” Rori snickers. “I swear the lot of you keep drinking the water around here. I’m going to have to start testing it.”
Sienna, Gia, and Amara all share a look that I can’t quite decipher, but maybe that’s for the best. If they all focus on Kida, then they won’t be focusing on me.
“Let me get Soren. He’ll probably just want to sleep.” I give Sofia a grateful smile. “And thank you for getting one of the portable bassinets. It’ll make it easier to bring him down so he can sleep.”
“Let me help,” Sofia offers. It takes us a few more minutes, but we eventually get the bassinet into the portable format, and I slip Soren back into his sling, making him very unhappy.
When we get to Amara’s salon, I’m impressed with how nice it is. “It’s been so long since I’ve had my hair done,” I tell her as we set up the bassinet in the corner, away from her chair and the wash bowls. “But this looks so nice.”
Amara smiles at Gia. “You can thank Gia for that. I’m still shocked that she had one built here.”
“You’re joking right? This way Nico can’t get all pissy if I want to go out and get my hair done,” Gia scoffs.
Soren lets out a cry when I pull him out of the sling and put him in the bassinet. He kicks his feet angrily, his little face scrunching up.
“Someone doesn’t like to be out of the action,” Rori grins. “Come on, big guy, don’t be stressing out your mama.” She reaches in and lifts him into her arms, expertly turning him so he’s propped up and can see around.
The change is enough to stop his cries as he looks up at Rori.
It hits me that I’m not even panicking seeing someone else hold him. Huh. Guess that time in the passageways took that fear away. Still, I’m careful to keep an eye on him while everyone else moves around to set up the whiteboard and all the papers that Amara and the others had written earlier.
Before long the walls are full, and we’re all staring at them like we’re hoping the answers will just pop out at us.
“Wow, this is a lot,” Kida remarks. “How on earth are we supposed to figure anything out?”
“Ask the puzzle master over here,” Sofia jokes lightly, jerking her head at Amara. “If anyone is going to figure this whole thing out, it’s her.”
“I still think we should check out the hidden room again,” Sienna reasons. “I mean, what if we’re missing stuff still?”
“Maybe we should split into teams,” Gia agrees. “Everyone looking at different things means we cover more ground.” She looks at Sienna. “Did you get the journals from Pietro?”
She nods, grabbing something from the lounger. She hesitates. “Do you want to read them, or do you want someone else to?”
“What are they?” I ask.
“They’re journals our mothers wrote.” She regards me carefully. “And including that she didn’t love us. She wanted to get rid of us, and she hated Gia.” Gia flinches, but it’s quickly followed by her straightening her shoulders.
“I’d like my mother’s journal,” Amara says softly. “Lazaro was worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I read it, but I think he’s wrong.”
“Are you sure?” Sienna asks, watching her. “You’ve been through a lot Amara and?—”
“Now you sound like him,” Amara huffs, exasperated. “Look, even if it’s terrible, I can handle it. With my past, trust me, thereisn’t much I can’t handle right now. And if she wrote something important, maybe I can figure out what it means.”
Sienna slowly nods and hands her the journal. Amara holds it close, her fingers gripping it like she’s afraid to let it go.
I glance at the last journal in Sienna’s hands. Did my mother write something about me at all? Or just that she didn’t want me like Gia and Sienna? Can I handle what she wrote?
“Gia, do you want to read this one?” Sienna asks Gia.
Gia swallows and slowly shakes her head. “I don’t think I want the emotion of reading it just yet.”
“I’ll read it,” I offer. They look at me, saying nothing. “I’m a mother, right? Maybe there is something I can understand?” It’s a weak argument, but my curiosity is getting the better of me. I really want to know more about the woman who birthed me. I mean, up until now, I haven’t cared. Too focused on being here in the first place.
