Ivan was standing on the deck holding my phone as I approached.
“You should be more careful where you leave this,” he said and handed it out to me.
“Thanks,” I said and put it into my pocket.
Ivan grunted and went into the house. I followed him and then sought out the children once more.
That evening, I thought it might be nice for the conversations between Leo and his father to be a nightly event. Leo seemed pleased by the idea.
Leo was still looking at me kind of strangely now, but he seemed less nervous and more… hopeful? He looked at me like I held the key to something he held dear, but until he talked to me about it, I didn’t have a clue what it was all about.
The last thing I wanted to do was make him nervous again. Hopeful was much better. So I didn’t say a word about it, tru
