Page 117

After a while, she leaned over to whisper in my ear.

“I told you, baby.”

I cleared my throat. “I know.”

And she had told me. And I did know. But the confirmation still rattled me in a way I didn’t expect.

I wiped my mouth on a napkin, standing and giving Zarina’s shoulder a squeeze.

“I’ll be back.”

She nodded up at me once, watching me with those eyes that saw everything.

I shut myself away in the bathroom and washed my face over and over with cool water until the tightness in my throat eased at least a little.

But the door cracked open, and while I was half expecting Zarina to follow me, it was Evie who peaked her little head in.

I looked down at the toddler with an arched brow.

“What’s up, sister?” I whispered, because of the way she checked over her shoulder like she was on a secret mission.

She motioned for me to come closer with her hand. She’d obviously been told at some point that it was rude to follow people into the bathroom, and was working with the loophole that she was still, technically, outside the door.

I crouched down to her level on the other side of the door, tilting my head to the side. I’d all but forgotten about the emotion that burned at my throat, now distracted by whatever conspiracy the tiny devil was trying to involve me in.

“I bringed us cake,” she whispered, producing a bowl full of chocolate mudcake from behind her back and a child-sized spoon in her other hand.

“We shouldn’t eat cake in the bathroom,” I shook my head.

She rolled her eyes.

God, this one was Zarina all over.

“Eat sneaky on thesteps, Uncle Ashe.”

That burning in my throat was back. I had to swallow it as best I could as Evie held out her little dimpled hand, dragging me from the bathroom and to the bottom of the stairs.

We sat on the bottom step together, taking turns having spoonfuls of cake. She hadn’t said anything else, but I’d occasionally catch her watching me with curious eyes.

“What is going on in here?” Zarina’s voice was a half-laugh, half-scold as she rounded the corner and caught Evie with the spoon half-way into her open mouth.

I snatched the bowl off of her lap and hid it behind my back, getting rid of the evidence. She noticed my movement and did the same with her spoon, hiding it behind her back (once she had eaten the cake off it, of course).

“You two are so naughty!” Zarina barked, marching over and leaning past us to snatch the bowl from the stair behind me.

“Am not!” Evie stomped.

“Yeah!” I agreed. “Am not!”

“I’m telling your mummy,” Zarina pointed a finger at Evie, who seemed completely unphased.

“Don’t care. Already eated it.”

“And you,” Zarina tried her best to keep her angry face composed as she turned her accusatory finger to me. “You’re going to get punished too.”

I tried my best to look worried.

“No!” Evie barked at her, standing to wrap her arms around my neck. “No, I love him!”