Rosa smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“Yeah, okay,” I agree easily. Seems like we both only know half of the story anyway.
I’m sitting in a chair and Dante is on the arm of the chair next to me. The rest of the guys have taken seats around the room. We haven’t been in here before, it’s much more formal than the rooms we’ve hung out in so far. The furniture is heavy with thick patterned fabric and wood accents. There’s a huge stone fireplace taking up almost one entire wall—you’d have to have a small mountain of wood to fill it—and the stone extends up to the ceiling, making it seem even larger. Several seating areas are dotted throughout the room. Ares and Milo are to my left on another sofa, while Ollie has opted to sit on the floor near my legs. He’s not touching me, but he’s close. I appreciate the support.
Rosa and her men are all on a couch across from my chair and they look completely at ease with each other, something I envy at this stage of our relationship. Before I can ponder too hard what it was like for them when they first met, Ares pipes up, “Who was Leon?”
Rosa closes her eyes but takes a deep breath. “Until recently I haven’t thought about this in years.” William places his hand over Rosa’s, and she gives him a small smile in return. “I met Amanda by chance. I had taken Ares to the park one day, and there was this lovely young girl there. She was with a little boy herself. I still didn’t have very many girlfriends here, especially one with a little boy. We chatted while the boys played, and by the end of the afternoon we had exchanged numbers and planned to meet again in a few days.”
“Who was the little boy?” I can’t help but ask. Do I have an older brother out there somewhere?
“I think his name was Teddy, it turns out she was just babysitting him for the summer while she was out of school, but we met up a few more times for playdates with the boys.” The emotion that filters through me isn’t quite relief, but it’s something close. I don’t know how I would handle finding out my mother hid even more from me.
“I don’t remember him,” Ares mutters.
“Well, you were young; you only played with him a few times before Amanda confessed to me that she was a Synergist.” Rosa looks to the left, a frown falling over her features. “She had heard Ares talking about his papas—as in two—and asked if I had remarried. I didn’t want to lose her friendship, but I wasn’t willing to lie either, so I told her I had two husbands. Her face lit up, and she asked me if I were in an Infinity.” Rosa’s lips lift with a small smile.
“After that I knew why I was always drawn to her, our lives aren’t always easy—especially when outsiders judge us. That’s why so many groups choose to settle close together, so we have people around us we can share our lives with who won’t judge us.”
“So, she knew what she was?”
Rosa looks over at me, her eyes shrewd. “Yes, of course.”
“Laura’s mother never told her what she was, never told her about Infinities,” Dante announces, brushing his hand over my back.
“But…” Rosa opens her mouth, her words failing her.
“My mom was… withdrawn at best, paranoid to say the least. She seemed to get worse as I got older. I wasn’t allowed to have friends, or to do anything that would draw attention to myself. We moved around a lot, and it got to the point where she never even left the RV.” I sigh as guilt for thinking she was crazy eats at me. If she would have only talked to me, told me the truth… I don’t even know if I would have believed her. I probably would have thought it was just her delusions. Ares makes his way over to the chair, taking up a seat on the opposite arm of his brother.
“She probably thought she was protecting you,” William adds.
“She always told me that there were bad people, people we were hiding from, but she never told me who. She made it like a game when I was little, but as I got older, I thought she had problems, you know…” I look down, not meeting any of their gazes. “Like mental problems,