“And Leo said he’s been skating since he was five. He said his dad works at the City Hall.”
“City Hall?” I asked, amused. “Is that right?”
“Uh-huh. That’s what he said.”
I smiled faintly. “Well, maybe he was joking. Remember the man who patched up my knee? That was Leo’s dad.”
“Really?” I said, brushing her hair back from her forehead. “He’s a very nice man.”
Ava nodded, satisfied. “He is. Did you know Leo has one dad andtwo moms?”
“I did not,” I said, smiling. “That sounds like a very loved kid.”
“It’s cool,” she murmured. “He said they all live next door, and they have pizza night every Friday. They don’t even fight.”
“Sounds wonderful,” I said softly, my chest tightening a little.
Ava yawned, shifting closer. “I wish Dad could’ve been there.”
The words hit like a small, sharp ache right under my ribs.
I swallowed hard. “Me too, sweetheart.”
Her breathing began to even out, the slow rhythm of sleep taking over, but I stayed awake, staring at the flicker of the TV on the ceiling.
Leo’s family.
Alex’s smile.
The easy way he’d looked at me—like I wasn’t someone broken, just someonereal.
It had been so long since anyone had looked at me that way.
I ran my thumb over the bandage on my knee, the one he’d wrapped so carefully, and thought about what it meant to start feeling something again.
It wasn’t betrayal. It wasn’t forgetting.
It was . . . life. Sneaking back in around the edges.
And it scared me almost as much as it comforted me.
I turned off the TV, pulling Ava closer as the room slipped into darkness.
“Goodnight, baby,” I whispered.
11
ALEX
Wednesdays had quietly become my favorite day of the week.
Leo was humming in the passenger seat, swinging his legs and occasionally stopping to announce some random penguin fact he’d picked up from a nature show. “Did you know penguins mate for life, Dad? But sometimes they steal each other’s rocks.”
I smiled. “Sounds complicated.”
“Loveiscomplicated,” he said with complete seriousness, and I couldn’t even argue with him.
By the time we pulled into the community center parking lot, the late afternoon sun had turned the brick walls orange. Families were already heading inside, full of kids chattering, volunteers laughing, someone balancing a tray of cupcakes that looked doomed from the start.
