Page 117 of Vow

Haven shrugged.

What else could she do?

“I guess … this is unexpected. No one cared before. No one was around before, you know?”

“Things are never as simple or as easy as we think they are,” Kim explained. “Especially not in this family with the life we live. I think you’re going to find a lot of things will be different this time around, and they will adore you just as much as I do and as he does.”

Haven gave the woman a look. “You don’t even know me, though.”

“He’s told me enough to know you’re amazing, and strong, and everything he wants. So, what difference does the rest make, Haven, when those are the only things that should really matter at the end of the day?”

“That’s not the only thing that matters,” Haven said sadly, glancing down at her hands. “There’s a lot more to think about too.”

“Nothing is ever easy,” Kim echoed again. “You love him, though, don’t you?”

“Does that matter when I also know I can’t keep loving someone who keeps hurting me?”

Kim’s expression didn’t change at all from that soft smile she wore. “Maybe he did all that because that was the only way he could keep you. Have you ever thought about that?”

She did.

Now.

Today.

Kim waved a hand, adding, “But those are things you should talk to my son about. I don’t have all those answers. About you, though … I want to know everything.”

Haven laughed. “There’s not much to tell. Just a normal girl, you know?”

Kim looked her over, but her gaze never felt judgmental or disapproving. “Oh, I think there’s a lot to tell about you. He wouldn’t love you otherwise. Andino isn’t that simple—normal wouldn’t interest him. That alone tells me you’re something amazing.”

Well, then …

How did one reply to that?

• • •

Haven saw him darkening the doorway before his mother did. Andino wasn’t looking at anything else but Haven in that second. She could see the wariness in his eyes—like he thought she might bolt, but he was still going to try regardless.

God.

She loved him for that, too.

“Ma, care to give me a minute?” Andino asked quietly.

Kim smiled as she found Andino in the doorway. “There you are. And sure, yeah. We were just … chatting.”

Andino chuckled. “I’m sure. Telling all my secrets, I imagine.”

Giving Haven a wink, Kim stood from the chair and smoothed down the skirt of her dress. She walked across the room, and stopped alongside her son in the doorway. Her hand came up to pat his cheek with an affectionate touch.

“I was most certainly not telling your secrets, thank you,” Kim said, “and I definitely didn’t tell her about the little whale stuffy you kept until you were twelve.”

Andino groaned. “Ma.”

Kim laughed, and patted his cheek again. “Whoops. I’ll see you later.”

It was only once Kim was gone that Andino finally turned to Haven again. She couldn’t even hide the smile that was stretching her cheeks wide because that was, by far, one of the cutest things she had ever seen.