“Still like a vacation compared to working for that Mr. Blackburn?”
“…Yeah. Way easier. I have so much more time for Tomás.” That was the excuse she’d given for why they’d moved so far away. Lower cost of living, shorter working hours.
“Well, I’m very happy for you. Maybe I’ll be able to come visit you soon! My job is—well, that’s one of the things I wanted to talk about. I might be taking some extended leave soon.”
“Extended leave? Are they cutting your hours again?”
“No, no, it’s for—personal leave, let’s say…”
“Is it a health thing?!” Maya swallowed as panic made her voice go shrill. “Mom—”
“No, no, it’s not a doctor thing. It’s…” She sucked in a breath through her teeth. “You know how everyone is doing these DNA things these days, finding all their secret half-siblings or all sorts of things their families have been hiding?”
Is she going to suggest I do one for Tomás?Her jaw clenched. Her mom had never saidanythingabout Tomás’s mystery father. “I’ve heard of them, yeah.”
“And, well…”
Maya frowned. What had got her mom so worked up that she was forcing herself to talk about something embarrassing, instead of the normal Flores household activity of completely ignoring difficult conversations?
Gabriela heaved a breath. “You know my parents never went back over the border after they immigrated, and then—when I met your father, and we moved so far away, and there were never many opportunities to go back, especially after your father passed away. There are a lot of … gaps. And I don’t know if all this DNA stuff is a good idea, you know, sending it who knows where, but some of my friends from my evening classes, they’ve been finding things online! It’s amazing, the things that have been digitized.”
“You’re looking into our family history?”
It was like her mom had opened a door that had been kept locked so long, she’d given up wondering what was behind it. Almost her whole life, it had only been Maya and her mom. Her father had passed away when she was too young to remember. And there had never been enough money or enough time to go and find the aunts and uncles and grandparents who lived states away, let alone a whole country away.
And … they’d never talked about it.
For the first time, Maya wondered whether the reason her mom never reached out to the family she’d left behind was because she felt so guilty about moving her life away from them. The same way Maya felt guilty about the way she’d left her. And as the years went on, it got harder and harder to rebuild that bridge.
She swallowed. “If you’re thinking you might go visit them, I’d love to—I mean, if I can make it work…” Her stomach sank. “It would be difficult, but…”
“No! No, not visit, I don’t think traveling is a very good idea right now, but…”
They both collapsed into awkward silence. Maya’s heart twisted. If her mom was going to travel to meet family, she would love to come with her—but that meant traveling with Tomás. A toddler who could turn into a dragon.
In public.
On a plane.
In a city where she knew nobody, in front of family she’d never met. In front of her mom, who she’d hidden so much from.
Tears prickled behind her eyes.
“Anyway, I have to come and see you first!” her mom said, overly cheerful. “Maybe next weekend? Or the next few weeks?”
“Oh—” She stopped herself before she could sayNo!“I’d—I’d like that. Once—once things have settled down.”
Which might as well meannever.
“And I can tell you about the other thing then,” her mom decided, and said goodbye so quickly Maya barely had time to worry what theother thingwas.
The conversation nagged at her for the rest of the day. She felt worse than she would have if she’d ignored the call, which had to be some sort of horrible first.
But at the end of the day, when she had picked up Tomás from his carer, Corin was waiting for her outside her front door.
Her heart thudded like she was a teenager. Not that teenaged Maya had ever imagined having someone like Corin in her life. Even the non-dragon version. Her dreams had been thoroughly within the bounds of what she’d thought reality was back then. Good grades. A good job.
A breathtakingly handsome man who could turn into a dragon? Hadn’t featured.
