She tucked her phone into her pocket and grinned. “So do you.”
Richard had dropped the quilt he’d brought on the ground. He released her long enough to pick it up and snap it open with one quick whip.
“Favorite childhood memories,” he prompted while laying flat on his back. Like always, he stretched his arm out for her to rest her head on as she cuddled up to his side.
She cringed inwardly at the topic. Her childhood wasn’t something she liked revisiting. A strand of horrific images sped through her mind as she got into place beside him, eyes set on the sky. Her heart was really hammering now. “Umm, you start.” She hated that her voice sounded shaky and weak.
“Oh man, I’ve got a few whoppers. Let’s see…” Richard broke into a tale of the time the family had tried to be normal for a day.Normalmeaning not billionaires who had people waiting on them hand and foot. It had something to do with an assignment Memphis was doing. Somehow he’d talked his parents into playing along. “It was the only time we ever went to the park as a family. We sat down with a picnic—sandwiches we’d actually made ourselves.”
Ava tried to imagine a life like his. Money, both parents, brothers, and a sister too. It sounded like a dream. Even if they’d grown up poor in a shack on the wrong side of the tracks, they’d had each other. Of course, the twins had said that ever since their parents were killed, the siblings practically lived like strangers. It was neat to witness the way they were connecting again.
All but Maverick and Richard, that is.
“Okay, that was onlytwomemories but they were way too long and now I’m ready to hear yours.”
That dreaded flame of fear started to flare up once again. But then a vision came to mind. She had a few good childhood memories after all. Ones that, as she considered them even then, caused a splash of warmth and peace to settle over her heart.
“My grandmother watched me a few times when I was young,” she said, recalling the appearance of her old kitchen. “I can still picture it, sitting at her flour-coated counter as Grandma kneaded dough in a bowl, sunlight warm at my back. Her blinds were always open. I loved how bright and warm that made it.
“She’d let me help her make bread, from beginning to end. I remember thinking that the bread dough was even more fun to squish than playdough. Plus, we got to take nibbles of it along the way.”
“Mmm,” Richard said. “That sounds like a nice memory. What was your grandmother like? Were you close to her?”
“I wish we would have been closer. She lived in Vegas, and we only visited a few times. But she was soft spoken, gentle, and kind. A little silly and forgetful too. She had long hair, unlike most grandmas I saw. It was silver, and I remember thinking it was so pretty on her.”
She shrugged onto her shoulder so that she faced Richard. “She made me feel safe. And so do you. Not many other people have done that for me.”
Richard turned onto his side too. He brought a hand up to cradle her cheek, his gentleness a beautiful contrast to his strength. His brow furrowed, then softened as he searched her face. “Youaresafe with me, Ava. I’m glad you know that.” He leaned in then, and pressed a trail of breathy kisses along her brow.
Goosebumps rushed over her skin.
With parted lips, he moved along her cheekbone, then kissed the corner of her mouth before pulling back slightly. “I don’t know what you’ve been through…” he said, voice low and raspy.
She hadn’t noticed before, but it seemed, as Richard smoothed a thumb over her bottom lip, that he was trembling. “But I love you, Ava. And I’d never letanyonehurt you.”
Ava felt the truth of those words to her core. Elation surged through her. “I love you too.” It was in that moment that Ava recalled something, a personal detail involving Richard. She brought her hands up to his broad shoulders as he pressed kisses along her jaw.
“And Richard?” she breathed, daring herself to speak up before she was swept away in his kisses. “I think I heard Maverick slip up and use your real name while we were still at the center. Is it okay if I know it? I won’t slip up, I just…”
“What name was it?” he rasped. A whirl of lightning bugs danced nearby. She focused on the sight as she worked up the nerve to say it.
“Renato,” she said in a whisper. “Is that right?”
He nodded. “Yes. I haven’t heard anyone say that in months.”
She grinned, realizing that she needed something in return. Needed to know that the person he loved wasn’t some partial version of herself. Someone who hadn’t even existed until she arrived. She needed to know that he also loved the person who’d endured abuse all those years, even as a child. Because as far as she’d come, as much progress as she’d made, she was stillher.
“My name…” She paused there and gulped. “Is Anna.”
“Anna,” he said, causing more goosebumps to rise. “I love you, Anna.”
“And I love you, Renato.”
And then his lips were on hers. There was a new sort of passion in his kiss now. And in her kiss too. He loved her. He’d protect her. And he knew, really knew, who she was. Confidence bloomed as she considered it, and suddenly she was breaking from his kiss once more.
“I think we should tell everyone,” she said.
“You do?”
