Page 136 of Fly's Path

“After how many miles?”

“Nineteen.”

“Woman, I’m going to have to increase my daily runs if I’m going to keep up with you.”

“I don’t normally do that much. What did you mean when you said you weren’t physically hurt?”

He sighs. “You listen to me too well.”

I shrug as well as I can in this position, which isn’t well at all. “I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be. I’m not.” He kisses my temple and pulls me in close. “It’s probably about time I tell you about my family.”

What does his family have to do with any of this?

“My upbringing wasn’t what you would call traditional. I never met my mother. My father and grandmother raised me. They were grifters, so we didn’t stay in one spot long.”

“Grifters?”

“Thieves. Con men.”

I know what the word means, but…“They really exist?”

“Even though I wish they didn’t, yeah, grifters still live under the reach of the law. We weren’t your average con men. Every part of our lives was fake. From my first memory until the day I couldn’t take that life anymore, we moved over a hundred times. Many times, without as much as a bag of our own. We’d live in other people’s houses. Sometimes wear their clothes. Every part of our lives was stolen, even our names. They might have given me a name, but I can’t remember, and they didn’t believe in birth certificates. So when I walked away from them, I had nothing, not even a name of my own.”

“That’s what you meant when you said Fly was as good as any other.”

“Yeah. If anything, it’s the closest to real I get.”

I reach out my hand and place it over his heart. “That’s very real.”

He smiles, taking my hand in his. “These are real, too.” He kisses each one of my knuckles while maintaining eye contact with me.

Small touches are more intimate than I can handle. I look away before my mind melts away with my heart. “That had to be hard.”

“It was. And it was terrifying. But oddly exhilarating. Every moment of every day, you felt alive. It forced me to notice things…No, it was more than that. I see the world around me. Including what people don’t want me to see. Which means I see the darker side of life.”

Living like that, he might actually be able to understand my life.

“You’re probably wondering why I told you that now?”

Kind of. “I’m glad you shared part of your life with me.”

“You’re dying to know, but trying to be supportive.” He grins down at me.

“Basically.”

“I’ve lived my life outside of the law, but tonight is the first time I truly understood the darkness in the world. It shook me more than I care to admit.”

“Did the darkness scare you?”

“Terrified me. The worst part is that it exists all around me and I’ve never seen it before.”

“And now that you’ve seen it?”

He glances down at me. “I understand why it’s worth fighting even more. The biggest reason was waiting up for me when I got back.”

I want to protest to explain that I shouldn’t be his reason for anything, but instead, I stay quiet, enjoying the feeling of being cherished for the first time in my life.