“Handle it,” I say when he answers.
20
ANNA
Three Weeks Later
I findthem in the library.
Alexei is on the floor with his train set spread across the entire rug. The wooden tracks loop and curve in an elaborate pattern that must have taken him an hour to build. Luca sits cross-legged beside him, holding a bridge piece while Alexei decides where it goes.
“Here,” Alexei says, pointing. “The train needs to go under.”
Luca positions the bridge. Alexei tests it by running a train car through. It fits. He grins.
I watch from the doorway. Neither of them has noticed me yet.
“Now the station,” Alexei announces. He’s bossy when he’s focused. Always has been. “It goes at the end so the train can stop.”
“Where’s the end?”
“Here.” Alexei crawls across the rug and taps a spot near the bookshelf. “This is the city. The train brings people to the city.”
“What city?”
“I don’t know. Just a city.”
Luca picks up the wooden station building and hands it to him. Alexei places it carefully, adjusting the angle until it’s exactly right.
Three weeks ago, Alexei wouldn’t even look at Luca. Ran from rooms when he entered. Now he’s sprawled on the floor planning train routes like they’ve been doing this forever.
I don’t know when the shift happened. When my son stopped seeing Luca as the man who made his mother cry and started seeing him as someone who knows how to build train tracks.
Luca glances up and spots me. “How long have you been standing there?”
“A few minutes. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Alexei looks over. “Mama, look! We made a whole city!”
“I see that. It’s very impressive.”
“Luca helped.”
“I can tell.”
My son goes back to his trains. Luca stands, brushing off his jeans. He’s dressed casually today. No suit. Just dark jeans and a blue henley that makes him look younger than fifty.
“Where’s Mila?” I ask.
“Garden with Elena. She wanted to pick flowers.”
“She’ll pick every flower in the garden if no one stops her.”
“Elena knows. She’ll redirect before that happens.”
We stand there in awkward silence while Alexei makes train sounds and rolls cars along the tracks.
This is new too. The silence between us isn’t as sharp anymore. Less like standing on broken glass. More like breathing the same air without choking on it.
