“You said you lost an important piece of evidence.” I’d intended it to come out as a tease. Instead, it came out in a wobble.
Nick swallowed. “It is.”
“Is there anything I need to know?” I held the box out to him, too terrified to open it. Too hopeful about what it might mean.
I wasn’t entirely sure he was breathing, or how I felt when he shook his head. “Nothing you need to know tonight.” He hesitated before taking it. I watched it disappear into his pocket, and I knew every mixed emotion I was feeling was playing over my face.
He put his arms around me. His heart was beating hard under my cheek, every bit as fast as mine. He tipped my chin up, and there was an apology in his eyes, but I was pretty sure there was a promise in them, too.
He smiled as he brushed my cheek with his thumb. “It’s pretty damning proof. You know that, right?”
“I know,” I said, sparing him any explanations. He was right. There wasn’t anything in that box I needed to see right now. There was still plenty of time in our relationship for discovery. I didn’t need him—or want him—to make any admissions tonight. When he was ready to share what was in the box, he’d open it and show me. That much I knew.
Until then, I was content not to.
I grabbed his collar and pulled him toward me. As he leaned in to kiss me, Zach thundered into the kitchen, his eyes manic with sugar and his mouth dusted in crumbs. Nick smiled down at me, unbothered by the interruption, and it made me want to kiss him that much more.
Zach tugged hard on my pant leg. “More cookie, Mommy?”
I glanced down to tell him no, and I nearly stopped breathing. Zach clutched my unopened twin-pack of pregnancy tests in his hand. I felt the blood drain from both of our faces as Nick looked down and saw them, too.
His eyes leaped up to mine. He stared at me, dumbstruck. I wasn’t sure if it was hope or fear I saw on his face until his tentative smile broke the tension. He took the box from Zach and held it between us. “Anything I need to know?”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. “Nothing tonight.”
EPILOGUE
It hadn’t taken more than a week for everyone to fall back into a comfortable rhythm. Vero woke up early with the kids and drove them to school. I handled all the groceries and errands on my way to pick them up. We took turns cooking dinner and getting them ready for bed, and Nick made everyone pancakes on the mornings when he spent the night at my house. On Friday and Saturday night, Vero stayed with Javi at his apartment over Ramón’s garage. And on Sunday, we all piled into the minivan and drove to the detention center to visit Mrs. Haggerty. Even Cam and Arnold came along.
We were one big, dysfunctional, happy family, and it was the first time in months everything had felt like it was finally going right. There were no bodies in my car or my house, and there were no warrants for either of us. Vero’s past had been dealt with, the Russian mob was out of our lives, my ex-husband and I were successfully co-parenting, Mrs. Haggerty and I were on amicable ground, and it had been several days since Stacey had posted anything on her social-media accounts.
By the following Monday, there was only one issue yet to be resolved. Vero and I sat at my kitchen table, sharing a carton of rockyroad ice cream after lunch. Javi and Nick were both at work, and the kids were down for their nap. It was the first time in a long while that Vero and I had a few minutes to relax by ourselves. She opened a bag of chips and dipped one in her ice cream.
“You know Nick’s going to give it to you eventually,” she commented out of the blue.
I suspected I knew what she was talking about, but I asked the question anyway. “Give me what?”
“Whatever was in that jewelry box.”
“Sometimes a shower curtain is just a shower curtain,” I reminded her. “For all I know, it could be Mickey Mouse earrings or a Mother’s Day pin.”
Vero smirked around a chip. “Don’t play ignorant with me. You know exactly what it is.”
“I’m not in any hurry for a proposal. Getting engaged is a big commitment. There’s no sense in rushing it.” A crease appeared between Vero’s eyes, as if I’d touched a sore spot. “Not that there’s anything wrong with an impromptu ceremony in a casino chapel,” I said, nudging her with my foot. “But it isn’t only me that Nick would be proposing to, it’s all of us, you and the kids, too. If he’s going to handcuff himself to this family, I want him to be sure.”
“You can’t seriously be scared he’ll change his mind.”
“Sometimes,” I admitted.
“Well, don’t be. That man is so deep in love with you, it would take a garage full of shovels to dig him out.”
In my heart, I knew Vero was right. Nick was already committed. The proof was all there. He hadn’t shopped for whatever was in that boxbeforeI went to Maryland. Or evenafterhe saw the pregnancy tests I’d bought. He’d bought it somewhere in the sweet spot between: after Zach had stolen his car keys and he’d had to juggle the kids at work, after he’d already spent days cooking mealsfor them, cleaning up their messes, and sleeping in my bed even when I wasn’t there. That all had to mean something, right? If hewashaving second thoughts about a future with me, he would have had them then, in the middle of all that chaos.
Vero twisted sideways in her seat. “Aren’t you the least bit curious, Finn? Even I’m dying to know how big it is!”
“We could have Stacey start a poll.”
“I’m serious! Tell me the truth.”
