Page 57 of Love Thy Brother
Liliana pulled a face. “Papá made me do reading instead. He hid my stuff and I can’t have it back until after dinner.”
“Dinner?” My stomach growled. “What are you having?”
“Dunno. Chicken, maybe?” Liliana shrugged, as disinterested in sustenance as Alexei. “I’m eating it at the new house.”
“Which one?”
“The one Cam gave to my mum.”
The car rolled back. I sensed River’s gaze piercing holes in the side of my head, but I kept my gaze on Liliana. If River wanted to know, all he ever had to do was ask. “Does that mean you’re going to live there soon?”
Liliana’s pout deepened. “I don’t want to live there. I like it here.”
“Yeah, but it’s no fun when you have to be somewhere all the time. Ivy doesn’t live at the compound. And your dad won’t when he moves into his house.”
Liliana’s bottom lip remained at level ten. Honestly, the life this kid had led, she was the most chill individual I’d ever met. But she had attachment issues, and every bond she’d forged since she’d come screaming into our lives meant the world to her.
I changed the subject back to her drawing. She fetched a pad and showed me the charcoal sketches she’d done of her freaky-looking horse.
They were incredible, just like her.
“Who’s in the car with you?” she asked suddenly.
I blinked. River had been so quiet I’d almost forgotten he was there. That we’d nearly died together twenty minutes ago. “Um. River. He’s Cam’s little brother, see? You think they look alike?”
Unthinking, I swivelled the phone to River and his bloody face, catching him off guard.
But he was good with kids. We all were. His ma had made sure of that. He forced his natural grump into a crooked grin and waved a salute. “Little lady. Nice to meet you.”
Liliana smiled back. “You look like your sister but not as pretty.”
I disagreed, but that was a debate for another day. I let River off the hook and swivelled the phone back to me. “I have to go. And you’d better get ready to go home for dinner.”
As I spoke, I heard adult voices in the background and hurried my goodbyes, hanging up before whoever was there could see the state of me.
I held the phone out to River. “You want this back?”
He ignored it, parallel parking on the road outside his house. “So she really is Mateo’s kid?”
I cut him a glance. “You think we made it up?”
River killed the engine and unclipped his belt. “No, I just don’t get it. He had no family except his ma and his hot cousin. I checked. Saint checked. Where did this kid come from?”
Nowtherewas a question. One I didn’t have time to answer if we were about to go our separate ways, a thought that made my heart skip a halting beat.
I dragged a hand through my straggly hair and took a chance. “Make me a cuppa and I’ll tell you all about it?”
River shrugged. “All right then.”
He’d have surprised me less if he’d invited me to the moon.
He got out of the car, leaving me to my shock, and strode to the front door.
After a beat, I followed him on wobbly legs, the cold returning to my bones without a real conversation to distract me.
By the time I reached River’s door, he was already inside. Breath caught, I stepped over the threshold, waiting for an onslaught of memories to hit me.
Nothing happened.
