Build And Break novel Chapter 64

"Jimmy, what are you saying?" Angela whispered.

Jimmy clutched her hand he held. A small, sad smile formed on his lips. "Don't worry. I'm not going to say anything. Just like I never said anything before. I know your heart belong to one person alone. Him."

"Oh, Jimmy." Angela touched Jimmy's face. He was like a brother to her, her protector, Daniel's uncle. She never saw him as anything past that.

"He's your family, Angel. Whether you admit it or not, you miss him and you must have him in your life. You need him."

Angela wanted to say something but words seemed to have been forgotten by her brain and she didn't have much time to think before they heard loud knocking on the front door. With apparent startle, Jimmy let go of her hand and Angela took it as her cue to escape the awkwardness that was imminent to ensue.

She opened the door to find Steven and Daniel. "Mommy, can I show Daddy the gift we are making for him?" Daniel asked but didn't wait for an answer as he began tugging Steven behind him towards Angela's studio. Jimmy was still there, leaning to the workbench like lost in another world though Daniel's enthusiasm as he showed Steven 'Mommy's work' brought him back to Earth.

Daniel showed Steven the wood he carved earlier with Angela. "We are going to make one for you too. It's not ready yet but it's for you. Look." The boy then exhibited the wood piece of work in progress that Daniel had insisted with Angela they'd begin working on while he waited for Steven to arrive earlier. "It's a gift from me and Mommy."

Steven's eyes met Angela's as soon as Daniel spoke her name. Even through the distance between them, Angela felt his gaze piercing through her soul. The last time she had felt that intensity radiating from Steven was when he proposed to her. When she had left him. And leaving him felt like a loss to her, like a piece of her heart torn away.

Jimmy felt the tension arising between the two. "Come on, Daniel. Let's get you cleaned up. You're all muddy and sweaty."

"Daddy is more dirty than me. Look, Uncle Jimmy." Daniel laughed while pointing at Steven's dirt on his pants at his thighs, his knees, everywhere. "He felt three times. He's a bad player. And he plays funny in those clothes." The boy kept on laughing harder.

"Yea, yea. I know I'm a bad player and I prefer to keep it our little secret." Steven crouched down, winked at the boy and ruffled at Daniel's hair playfully and it was one of the few times where the boy wasn't annoyed at the gesture. "Now go with your uncle and get a shower."

Daniel threw his arms around Steven's neck to hug him. "Please keep your promise of visiting me again soon. I will miss you."

"So will I." Steven kissed the boy's forehead before Jimmy lifted the boy in his arms and nodded at Steven with a small friendly bow. Jimmy escorted the boy to the door, pausing for half a second beside Angela to clutch a hand on her forearms and wink at her followed by a side-glance at Steven. It was his way of urging Angela to have courage and face Steven.

Angela wrinkled a brow at him. Unsure where the question came from.

"You told your son you did."

"I couldn't lie to a four year old about loving his daddy, could I?"

Steven watched her intently. He wasn't sure if should accept the answer or not. It definitely wasn't the answer he wanted.

"I did love you once, Steve. I truly did." Angela clarified her answer further and surprisingly for her, her voice didn't break as she'd expected. She wished nothing more than to have the same love they once had.

Steven reached out to grasp her forearm softly and when Angela looked down at his touch, her eyes immediately caught the one thing she never expect to see or even more expected it to cause her heart to tighten. Steven still wore his wedding ring. And it was in that instant that she realized Steven wasn't ready to let go of her yet. He wasn't ready to take his ring off and rid of the final attachment he had to her other than Daniel.