Read Online Yours to Keep by Serena Bell - Free Book Online

chest constricted. “No,” he said, trying not to betray his emotion, because he knew it would scare Theo. “No. I’ll be glad to have you there with me. You’ll be good company.”
    “Okay. That’s not a really bad punishment.”
    A smile threatened, but Ethan kept it under wraps. “I could think of something worse.”
    “NO! No. No. That’s good. That’s a good punishment. I mean, a bad one. One that’ll teach me a lesson.”
    Yeah, sometimes you could see the toddler in the teenager. Ethan wanted to sit on the edge of the bed and touch his son’s hair. Or kneel on the floor and lay his cheek against the boy’s, the way he had when Theo was very small. Instead, he said, “We’ll figure out the closest bus stop. I’ll call the transportation office tomorrow.”
    Theo lay looking at the ceiling. Then he said, “Dad?”
    The name, so rare these days, twisted in Ethan’s gut. “Yeah?”
    “I wasn’t trying to—you know, make fun about the helmet thing. I didn’t even think about the helmet. I was just …”
    Ethan waited, all eager hope, each second an eternity.
    “I don’t know, trying to—trying to do something different. ”
    Ethan hesitated, unwilling to break the moment but knowing that something real was called for. “Sure,” he said finally. “But next time, if you want to do something different, ask first. And I’ll tell you if it’s a really bad idea.”
    “ ’Kay.”
    “I’m going to go make dinner.”
    “Do you—do you need help?”
    Ethan kept his face carefully neutral. “Do you want to chop onions?”
    “Do I have to wear those stupid goggles?”
    He laughed, and even Theo’s mouth curved in the suggestion of a smile. “No.”
    “Okay.” Theo stood up and followed his father down to the kitchen, while Ethan tried to feel glad for what he’d been given and not terrified of how tenuous it felt.

Chapter 6
    Ana heard the yowl of an electric guitar as she walked up the front path of the Hansens’ house on Thursday afternoon. She rang the bell and waited, but no one came to the door. The guitar was cranked loud, catchy chords and clever, improvised riffs. She didn’t recognize the tune.
    There was a maple tree in the yard that had begun to turn red and orange and yellow. She tried to memorize the way that tree looked against the blue fall sky, to store it up for later.
    She rang again then tried the doorknob. It turned, and she let herself in. She went up the stairs with her bags, following the sound, and knocked loudly on the door where the music was coming from, which she assumed was Theo’s bedroom.
    The guitar stopped abruptly. She heard him fumble with the instrument. The door opened. His face was flushed, his eyes slightly hooded. “Sorry.” He shook his head, as if trying to wake himself from a dream. “I get so into it, I lose track of time.”
    “You’re really good,” she said in Spanish.
    A little smile flitted across his face then vanished. “I’m okay,” he said in English.
    She let him get away with it. There would be time enough for Spanish practice. “Was that an original you were playing?”
    “Yeah.” That little smile again.
    “I liked it. Do you ever play anywhere? Like in clubs?”
    He shook his head. “I think I’m too young to play in clubs.”
    There was a place that Ana and her family walked by on their way to the Laundromat that had a big sign in the window advertising a teen open mike on Thursday nights. She’d tell Ethan about it. Maybe he could take Theo sometime. She wondered what had happened between father and son after she’d left the other night, whether they’d fought, what punishment Ethan had meted out. Despite what Theo had put her through that afternoon, despite how dangerous his actions had been, she didn’t think it was hard punishment he needed.
    Theo’s eyes found the shopping bag she was holding. “What’s in there?”
    She hoisted it up, grinning. “Dinner.”
    “What?”
    She opened the bag to show