Daylight

Chapter Six

Ava had time to shower off the day's activities before Luca got home from school. As her hands cleansed her skin, she could easily imagine Sebastian's arms around her. I'm thinking about him when he's not here. I just saw him! Ay dios mio. Her head felt a little hazy, distracted. It was rather unlike her but then again, she'd been doing a lot of things that were unlike her lately.

She stood at the stove now, patiently waiting for tamales to steam. She had music on low in the background, one hand resting on a hip. She should have anticipated the door unlocking, but her head must have been floating a little. Her body jumped as she heard the click of the lock and gasped, hand pulling to her chest. Luca. It's Luca. Ava caught herself and held her breath for a moment before she managed to smile. "Hola, mi niño," she greeted a little breathlessly.

"Hola mama!" Luca beamed. He hung his backpack up on the kitchen chair before he sat in it. "Did you have a good day?"

"Si, I did, thank you for asking," she replied brightly. She turned toward him and rested her hip against the counter beside the stove. "How was school? Did you give your science presentation?" He'd been feeling nervous about it, she knew that. He was so smart, but he was shy.

Luca nodded. "I did. Although I think Hanna did a better job than I did. Her project was about volcanoes."

"Stop that, just because Hanna did a good job doesn't mean you didn't, mi amor," Ava reminded him, tone sure and insistent. Turning back to the steamer on the stove, she carefully lifted the lid to check on the food. "Are you hungry? I made tamales."

"Do we have red sauce to put on them?" Luca asked in response. "It's my favorite way to eat tamales."

Ava clicked her tongue before she gave her son a playful side eye. "What kind of mother do you think I am? I know how my baby likes his tamales," she replied as a grin slid over her face.

She reached up to grab plates and went about dishing out tamales and covering them in red sauce before she carried them over to the table. "Comemos," she said as she put a plate in front of him and sat down beside him with her own.

Luca smiled brightly at his mom before he grabbed his fork and cut into the dish. "Do we have to wait until tomorrow for movie night? I wanna know what happens next with Captain America."

The faintest hint of a blush rose onto her cheeks as he mentioned Captain America. "Do you promise not to be grumpy when I get you up tomorrow?" she asked, giving him a knowing look. "You really liked the first one, huh?"

"It was so good!" The boy gushed before eating a bite of his food. "I still feel bad about Cap's best friend though. I don't know what I would do without Tobey."

Ava laughed brightly at his exclamation. It's like he knows who I'm trying to talk to him about. "I know, it was sad, I agree," she replied with a gentle smile. "Speaking of friends," she continued, taking a bite of her tamale, "you remember that I met a new friend recently?"

Luca nodded, licking red sauce from his lips. "Yeah. It's always good to make new friends. Do you like your friend?"

The apples of her cheeks grew faintly pink, and she nodded. "I do," she answered, playing with the food on her plate with her fork a little. "And... my friend wants to take me out for the night. How... would you feel about that?" she asked him gently.

"All night?" Luca questioned. "Why all night?"

She bit her lip, a lump forming in her throat. "Why all night..." she murmured, trying to think of an answer. "Because sometimes the things grown ups do happen later at night." That's believable right?