After ✔

03

The winter morning is cold, or perhaps it's me.

I shrug on my jacket and kiss Mason on the cheek.

"Where are you going?" He blinks up innocently at me and Amelia.

"To visit your uncle." Says his mom, scooping him up.

"I wanna go too!" He flails his chubby little arms around.

Gabriella gives Amelia a look. "It's just that he'll make too much noise. And besides, I'm not sure Dani's quite ready to meet his nephew, or his sister in law for that matter."

Amelia nods. "I completely understand. Besides," she smiles. "It's going to be Valencia whose going to do all the talking today."

I blink up at her.

"What?! No!"

Amelia's shaking her head. "He need to hear things from you, darling. It could trigger his memory."

But the thing was, I'm not sure he wanted to.

I thought about it the entire car ride to the hopital.

Amelia told him a few things yesterday, but specifically didn't say anything about me at all. She wanted me to do it myself.

And honestly, it scared me.

What if Dani didn't care enough? What if his memory doesn't come back?

Amelia parks the car and I huff. "Are you not coming?" I ask her when I notice she's not getting out of the car.

"No." She says. "I'll come to pick you up and check on Dani in an hour. You'll be fine. Plus, Nate's already there."

Yeah, that'll help. A lot.

Note the sarcasm.

With my arms tingling, I walk into the hospital.

I knock before entering. But the brothers are so engrossed in their conversation they don't see me entering.

"Seriously, man? Gabriella? You two fight like rats."

Nat narrows his eyes, but he's smiling nonetheless. "Don't call the mother of my child a rat."

"Yeah, then there's that." He shakes his head like it's impossible to believe. "I still can't get my head wrapped around the fact that you have a child."

"He wanted to come visit you." I pipe up from the doorway. I enter and close the door behind me. Perhaps not the best way to start a conversation, or intrude in one, but it's a start.

"Valencia." Says Nate. "I was just leaving for work. Great, now you can keep Dani company."

"No, by all means, stay."

I don't want to make things any more awkward than they have to be.

Nate gives me a sad smile, then turns to Dani. "I'll come by tomorrow, okay?"

Dani nods and his gaze settles on me. His eyes travel from my head to my feet then back up again, and even though he's merely curious, I feel very self-conscious.

"Hi." I say to him. I grab the chair that Nate was using and place it next to his bed before taking a seat. Not too close, but not too far away either. "How's your head."

"It's... okay, I guess." He shrugs. "Valencia, right?"I nod. "It must be awkward for you, having to see me like this. I can't imagine how you must feel."

I purse my lips. "Honestly, I'm just clinging to the hope you'll get your memory back any minute now."

It'll break my heart to see him like this. It really will.