Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I poured a cup of coffee and set it on the counter near him without comment, then returned to the stove.

“I thought I’d have breakfast here this morning,” Xenois said, his tone sounding formal as I wrinkled my nose at that tone. Why the heck was he asking permission. “If that’s okay.”

“It’s your house,” I replied, keeping my voice neutral. “I’ll make you a plate.”

The silence remained between us as I prepared his breakfast. In the corner of my eyes, I could see him watching me, trying to see if he could guess my current mood after last night’s confrontation.

I placed a stack of pancakes in front of him, then turned back to clean up the sink and the counter area that had gotten dirty.

Behind me, I could hear Ollie taking about his upcoming school day, about the field trip to the nature center and the friends he was excited to see.

“Ms. Henderson said we might see real frogs,” he was telling Xenois who was surprisingly paying attention this time.

“And we get to bring our lunch in special bags so the animals don’t smell our food.”

“That sounds exciting,” Xenois replied, and I had to give him credit, for this. He was genuinely engaged with our son this morning.

“Will you draw me a picture of what you see?”

“Yeah! I’ll draw everything!” Ollie promised, his face serious as if understanding his new responsibility that had been placed on his shoulders.

I joined them at the counter, sipping my own coffee as I watched them talking to each other both animated in the conversation that they were engrossed in. It was moments like these, especially how rare they were-that had kept me hoping in my previous life.

But I know better now. These moments were small, soon to be covered completely by broken promises and empty chairs at dinner tables.

Our son’s face brightened as he looked at me with hope in his eyes. “Both of you? Really?”

“If your father has time,” I said, glancing at Xenois. After all it depended on him to make it break his heart this morning. He might backtrack now and said that he had a meeting. If he was going to do so, he better say so now so I can spend the entire drive comforting Ollie.

The last time that Ollie had gone to school with Xenois alone, Ollie came back quiet and said that he didn’t want dad taking him to school again. And since then, we have not bothered him at all with that. So him stating this now was a shock.

He nodded quickly looking pleased with my words as he said. “I do. I’d like that.”

As Ollie looked at me for permission, I nodded my head slowly as he grinned at me and raced upstairs to get dressed, leaving us alone in the kitchen, Xenois turned to me with a conflicted look on his face.

“Thank you,” he said. “For suggesting that.”