Dinner had run long with everyone catching up at once, Kyle's amusement park stories, Gilbert's clean report from Yunxia, and Arianne still hadn't said a word about her own afternoon. Lexx had given up fighting sleep somewhere around his third yawn, slumped against Franz's shoulder, one small hand splayed flat over his chest, feeling for the heartbeat instead of fighting it the rest of the way down. Franz kept swaying anyway, more habit than necessity at this point. Arianne leaned against the doorframe still in the blouse she'd worn to the school pickup, arms crossed loosely, and watched the two of them for a while before she said anything.
"I ran into Diana today. At the twins' school, when I picked them up."
Franz's rocking didn't stop, but his eyes came up to hers. "That's not a name I expected to hear tonight."
