Nina pressed her cheek against Ethan's soft hair, holding the little boy tightly as her heart pounded with an unbearable, beautiful warmth. She looked up at Lucas, who was still kneeling right beside them on the carpet, his dark eyes fixed on her face with an intensity that made her skin prickle.
There was something almost unguarded in the way he watched her, a rare softness that she wasn't used to seeing on him, and it made her chest ache in a way she couldn't quite explain.
She wondered, briefly, if he even realized how transparent he looked in that moment, how the careful mask he wore for the rest of the world had simply slipped away. It occurred to her that she was witnessing something few people ever got to see, and the privilege of it left her strangely breathless.
"I got you lots of things," Nina whispered softly into Ethan's ear, giving him a gentle squeeze. "So many good things, little man."
