Page 70 of Maxim

“Delicious. I think I still like the bread more. What’s this?”

“That is a strawberry shortcake bar. I think you’ll like it.”

She sets down the brownie and takes a bite of the bar. “While the brownie is good, I like this more, I think.” She hums. “Thank you for doing this.”

“Of course. It’s been a while since I’ve had a day off, so I thought it was time.”

“But if my father calls, you’ll go.” She nods knowingly.

“If I have to, yeah. You know how it is.”

“I do, unfortunately.”

We fall silent and watch the ducks swim around.

“You know what I realized the other day?” she muses.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I know what you look like first thing in the morning and what you ate for breakfast, but I don’t even know if you were born here or what your favorite color is.” She looks at me shyly.

“Blue like the ocean, and no, I wasn’t born here. I was born somewhere else,” I tell her.

“But you can’t tell me where?” she deduces.

The girl might not have a formal education, but she’s so smart. Especially when it comes to reading people. Makes sense, since she has had to read people to survive.

“I will. Just not yet. I hope you understand.” I reach out, holding her hand.

“Of course I do. The less I know, the better.” She sighs.

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.” She gives me a small smile.

“What about you? I’d love to know your answers,” I tell her, not letting go of her hand.

“I love yellow, and yeah, I was born here, but we’ve spent a lot of time back in the homeland.”

Yellow. I should have known. Sunshine. Pure fucking sunshine.

“If you could do anything, what would it be?” she asks, catching me off guard.

“This. Well, more like what I do when I’m not moonlighting as a scumbag. What about you?”

The wind blows some of her hair across her face, and I fight the urge to move it for her.

I wonder if it’s as soft as it looks. With the sun shining on it, it almost looks like spun silk.

“I would like to go to school,” she says hesitantly.

I should have guessed that.

“We can make that happen. We can get you your GED, then get you into college. You can study anything you want.”

“You think I could do that?”

“I know you can,” I tell her. “You are so smart without it. You are going to excel at it. We will get your siblings into a real schooltoo. Nik has one he let Ivanna go to. We will find out what it was, unless you want to leave this place. Then we will do our own research.”