GABRIEL
I was not in the right frame of mind when I arrived at Gianna’s place with her ice cream, but she sure did light up when she answered the door and saw me standing there. I studied her face, read her eyes, to see where she was at. There was no longer any redness around her eyes as there was the last time I’d seen her, so she hadn’t been crying, at least not lately anyway.
“Gabriel, you’re here.” Has her voice always been this breathy and light? Or am I just hypersensitive? I held the ice cream out to her, and she reacted the same way she always does, with glee and surprise, like I hadn’t been doing it every single night since the first, even when we crossed continents. Well, except for a few that couldn’t be helped.
She dug in before turning her body sideways to invite me in. “Come in, grandma and the aunts went to bed early. They’re tired.”
“What about your uncles?”
