She burst out laughing then wrapped her scraggly arms around my neck. “You always keep your promises.”
My heart clenched as I looked over her small frame to my mom, while she wiped a tear from her eye and continued making her bread.
“I try,” I whispered, all the while thinking, I try and I fail. All I do is fail, especially when it comes to Ana. “Come on, let’s go get your swimsuit on.”
“Yay!” she squealed, whizzing past me and up the stairs.
Suddenly feeling older than my twenty-seven years, I took the stairs slowly, memories of making out with Jason on the third one haunting me. The creak on the tenth one was a reminder of all the times he’d tried to sneak back out the front door after spending the night.
And then the top landing where he’d stopped so often to pull me in for a kiss before descending.
Ten years, and I was a shell of my former self.
Ten years, and the hungry taste of his mouth still haunted me.
“You coming?” Ana called from inside her room.
I took a deep breath and pasted a smile on my face the same way I’d been doing since I drove away from him and left my heart on his front porch.