“Ryan.” Mom’s voice was warm, trying to draw my gaze to her, but I had to fight myself to look away from the little angel who was staring straight at me. When I met Mom’s gaze, she had a huge grin on her face. “Come meet Felicity and her daughter, Nova.”
I glanced back at the woman and swallowed the knot of nervousness that had returned and tried to choke me, but I only skimmed over her for a second before my eyes were back on the little girl. “Hi,” I muttered quietly.
“Hello, Ryan,” the woman returned in a gentle tone. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart.”
The little girl squirmed, and her mom set her on her feet. As soon as she was free, she ran straight up to me. “Hi,” she greeted in the sweetest voice I’d ever heard, grabbing my hand.
“Nova, do we grab people?”
“No, Mommy,” she said, dropping my hand, her bottom lip pouting. “Sorry.”
The sight of that pout did something strange to my chest. It was worse than when Ciana did it. Knowing Nova was unhappy…hurt. I took hold of her hand gently. As soon as I touched her, the pout disappeared, and I was rewarded with a smile that was just as sweet as her voice.
She was so small she barely reached my belly button, but there was something about her that made her appear larger than life as I smiled down at her.
Behind me, I heard Papa talking to Zio Ciro, and then a male voice I didn’t recognize called out, “Garret, if you’re not going to behave, then you will go to bed early tonight, son.”
“Big deal,” I heard a kid mutter.
Tearing my eyes off the angel in front of me, I glanced over my shoulder just as footsteps reached my ears. I needed to know who was coming in case I had to protect Nova. A boy who was a little taller than me came into the room. With his green eyes and blond hair, I knew he must be Nova’s brother, but when his gaze landed on her, he gave an annoyed roll of his eyes before they narrowed on me and the way I was holding his sister’s hand.
I tightened my grip on her fingers, not enough to hurt her, but enough to let her know I wasn’t ever going to let her go. She was just a baby, three years old, if what Ciana had mentioned was true. She was itty-bitty and needed protecting. And even if I had to protect her from her own brother, I would. She was too precious to let anything or anyone ever hurt her.
“They’re here! They’re here!” I heard Ciana yelling as the clatter of her shoes on the floor echoed down the hall as she ran. Seconds later, she skidded to a stop in the doorway, her brown eyes scanning the room and taking everyone in.
“Ciana, where are your manners?” Zia Scarlett admonished. “Are you supposed to enter a room like that, young lady?”
“Sorry, Momma,” she said breathlessly. She walked farther into the room, her gaze jumping between the blond boy and Nova, who held on to my hand even tighter now. “Hi,” she greeted the boy first. “I’m your cousin Ciana.”
The boy rolled his eyes, and when he opened his mouth to speak, I expected him to say something mean. I was prepared for him to make Ciana cry, and I shifted, knowing I would have to punch him if that happened. She might annoy me at least once a day, but I couldn’t let anyone hurt her feelings.
“Garret,” his mom snapped, the softness in her tone gone. The steel in that voice made my stomach turn again, but it had Garret standing up straighter as he gave Ciana a tight smile.
“Hi,” he gritted out. “I’m Garret.”
Ciana beamed at him. “Oh, I know your name. Do you want to play? I’ve set up board games, and Zayne helped me blow up all kinds of new pool toys. Or we could play on the Xbox or the PlayStation.” She was rambling, her words pushed together almost to the point it was hard to understand some of what she was saying as she spoke too quickly.
Garret’s smile became a little more genuine as he watched her. “Um, yeah, sure. I have an Xbox at home. What games do you have that we can play?”
She danced around happily. “Yay! Come with me, and I’ll show you.” She grabbed his arm and was ready to pull him out of the room when she caught sight of Nova again. “Oh…um, I didn’t know you would be so tiny, Nova. I…” She bit her lip and turned to face her mom, her eyes and voice accusing. “Momma, I thought you said Nova was the same age as Vito and Bennie.”
“She is, Ciana,” Zia Scarlett assured her patiently. “But Nova was born a little too early, and that has caused her to be a bit smaller than other children her age. She was in the hospital for a very long time.”
My stomach began to hurt all over again as I looked down at Nova. I didn’t understand what it meant to be born too early, but I did know that being in the hospital for any reason wasn’t a good thing. Instinctively, I tugged her closer, wanting to hold her.
“Is she…sick?” Ciana asked quietly, her eyes filling with tears once again.
“No, sweetie,” Nova’s mom, Felicity, was quick to tell her. “She’s fine now. She just had to grow a little more before she could come home. But she doesn’t have a very strong immune system right now. So we try not to let her around a lot of people who might be sick so that she doesn’t catch their illness.”
“Oh.” Ciana’s tears disappeared. “I promise I’m not sick and neither are my brothers or sister. Neither is Ryan. Right, Ryan?” She practically growled the question in my direction, her eyes shooting flames at me in a silent command to answer.
“I’m not sick,” I replied dutifully, but only because I didn’t want them to take Nova away.
“I don’t have anything Nova could really play with, though,” Ciana said, her tone turning sad once again. Her emotions were all over the place, and it was giving me a headache. “I was expecting her to be bigger, like Vito and Bennie. Not tiny like a baby.”
“I’m not a baby!” Nova yelled, offended. “I’m a big girl.”
Ciana’s face scrunched up, like she wanted to argue but didn’t want to make her cousin angry.
“She means you’re short, Nova,” Garret told her with a laugh. “All her toys and games are for tall people. Not shrimps like you.”
Nova released my hand and strolled over to her brother. She walked so calmly up to him that when she kicked him in the leg hard enough to make him shout in pain, we were all surprised. Well, everyone except for their mom.
“Don’t be mean to me, Garret!” she yelled up at him as he hopped on one foot while trying to rub away the ache in his leg.
“Nova, don’t kick your brother,” Felicity scolded, but her voice was back to being soft once more, not full of steel like it had been when she’d spoken to her son. “Garret, don’t tease your sister about how tall she is or isn’t.”
Garret stopped rubbing at the sore spot on his shin. “So, it’s against the law to speak the truth now? Yeah, okay, whatever.” He rolled his eyes. “We gonna play with your Xbox or not, Ciana?”
“Yeah, of course we are. But what about your sister? I don’t want her to feel left out.”
“I’ll play with Nova,” I offered.
“Yay!” Nova squealed, bouncing happily back to me and putting her hand in mine—where it belonged. The act was so natural, so full of trust, it was as if she’d been doing it all her life. It made my chest squeeze in that funny way again, and I tugged her closer. “Can we play hide-and-seek?”