Giada smiled at the ease with which children navigated their worlds. She nodded. “I did. But I’m all better now.”
“Because he’s here,” Matteo said.
“Because he’s here” she confirmed.
“Would it be okay if I asked you to go to dinner with me on Valentine’s Day?” he asked Giada, but then looked from Leo to Matteo, too.
“All of us?” Leo asked.
“Can we eat some of that meat you gave us when you brought us home the other day?” Matteo asked.
“Would you like to eat some of that meat?” Ronan asked.
“I would like that a lot,” Matteo said.
Ronan laughed, then looked up at Giada sitting at the table next to where they all sat on the floor.
“I’d like that very much. We all would, I think,” Giada said.
“It’s a date then. I’ll pick you up at about the same time I got here today. About six or six-thirty?” Ronan said.
“We’ll be ready.”
Chapter 19
Ronan got home about 9:00 P. M. still wearing the grin from watching Giada and the kids open their Valentine’s gifts. He let himself in the house, flipped on the lights, tossed his keys onto the square coffee table in front of the sectional. He looked around himself and realized how still the house was. How cold it seemed since he’d met Giada and the boys. Before them he appreciated the quiet, looked forward to the solitude and break from everything. But now, the silence and the stillness was more deafening than anything he’d ever heard.
Sighing, he grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, and searched for anything to fill in as background noise. Then he toed off his shoes, took his phone out of his pocket and flopped onto the sofa. He dialed Brandt’s number and waited for him to answer.
“’S’up?” Brandt said after the first ring.
Ronan grinned to himself. “Couple of things. Got a minute?”
“Yep. Give me a second,” Brandt said.
Ronan could hear him walking through the phone and then heard the sound of a door opening and closing.
“Alright. I’m sitting outside ready to listen. Except for the big ass Alligator floating around my side of the river. “Hey! Why you gotta muddy my river access? Go dig a slide out on your side.” Almost immediately Brandt started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“You ever see a Gator try to flip you off with his front paw? Lucien is something else,” Brandt said.
“Without a doubt,” Ronan said.
“Alright. What’s up?” Brandt asked.
“Went to go see Daniel the other day to let him know what I’ve learned about Giada, and to let him know I’m concerned. I know he’s there most of the time, and that whole generation volunteers on the regular so I wanted to ask him to just keep an eye out while they’re there anyway.”
“Good plan,” Brandt said.
“Thought it was, until Kaid interceded and every one of them got involved because my dad and I got into it again.”
“Aw, shit.”
“Yeah. But we made good and it ended with all of them wanting to help keep her and the kids safe. Thing is, she can’t know about it because I’m supposed to be giving her time. Long story short, I’m spending most of my evenings there just sitting quietly in the woods watching so she won’t know I’m there. They’re taking over later at night because they said I can’t be awake all night and all day and go to school and work, and so on and so on. So they’ve volunteered to help.”
“Why didn’t you come to me for help?” Brandt asked.
