“We’re really staying?” She looked back and forth between Aden and Hugo as though she couldn’t believe how calm they were. Back home if you fight, you run before the cops show up.
“I know the cops on duty tonight. I’ll tell them what happened. You guys are good. Just hang out. Shit.” Aden looked over at the television and slapped his hands together. “We missed half the game. Those bastards scored again. You two in the Denmark jersey, get the fuck out. You’re bad luck.”
The two men laughed, but Aden didn’t. “I’m not fucking around. Get out.”
After a long moment the two men stood, quickly downed the rest of their beers, and dragged themselves and their shocked faces out.
“You were right.” Hugo leaned in and squeezed her thigh. “This is great. I’m glad you picked it. And look at you with the snappy comebacks and the sassy attitude. I like it.”
“Glad you’re having a good time.” She huffed and folded her arms over her chest as she tried to process the last thirty minutes. A couple of cops came in the door and greeted Aden with a firm handshake.
“Hey, Willy. We’re good. They ran off. Same old troublemakers. I’ll give you a heads-up if they come back.” Aden tossed the cop a sandwich wrapped in brown paper and waved him off.
“Sounds good.” He tipped his hat at all of them and tucked the sandwich under his arm as he headed back out into the night.
“So Aden, how long have you been tending bar?” Hugo asked, looking excited for the food he just put down in front of them.
“Since I was twelve.” Aden laughed and filled a bag with ice for his swelling lip. “My dad owned a bar when I was growing up. Well, for a while. You can’t drink more than you sell.”
“You can really hold your own.” Hugo took a huge bite of the sandwich and didn’t notice that Junie wasn’t eating. “You ever consider making a career change?”
“To what? Should I be a doctor? A lawyer?” Aden leaned back against the wall of liquor behind him.
Hugo washed his food down with a sip of beer, and Junie watched as he leveled his face so Aden knew he wasn’t screwing around. “I’m hiring. I need a guy on my team who can think on his feet and do what’s right. You seem like you meet the criteria.”
“Sorry, bud. I barely got my ass out of high school. No college degree. Nothing on my résumé but slinging beers and listening to people’s problems.”
Junie leaned back and watched Hugo eye Aden and assess him intensely. “I don’t care about that shit. I’ve hired loads of people with tons of diplomas and they’re idiots. I interviewed about five of them today. I need someone with some street smarts. A guy who can look at a situation and apply some logic instead of just doing what the book tells him.”
“That’s good because I make it a point not to read books.” It was clear Aden still assumed Hugo was just messing around. Or maybe he assumed it was gratitude that was driving this offer.
“Junie, tell him I’m serious.” Hugo nudged Junie and shook her from her inner thoughts.
“He’s done all right by me.” Junie looked at Hugo’s excited face and couldn’t help but smile.
“I’ll give you my information. Come by my office tomorrow and we’ll talk. I think there could be a spot on my team for a guy like you.”
Aden was now focused completely on Junie. He was just waiting for one of them to burst out laughing. Instead she encouraged him. “I spent the day filling out a patent application for a product I plan to pitch to the CEO. He’s legit.”
That seemed to be enough for Aden to at least entertain the idea. “This is one hell of a night.” He walked away still muttering and shaking his head.
Hugo drank down the last of his beer and gave Junie a half smile. “And our night has barely begun.”
Chapter 11
“I don’t really know what to say about tonight.” Junie was nervously twirling a bit of her hair as they stood in the lobby of the hotel. Hugo didn’t pressure women. He never needed to. As much as he wanted Junie panting and desperate on his bed, what happened tonight was up to her.
“Just say we’ll do it again tomorrow.” He ran a finger down her forearm and grazed her palm before letting go.
“You’re supposed to be running in the other direction right now. You’re too good of a man to call it like it is, but you should at least be using that fancy skill of yours to talk your way out of this. Aren’t there a million red flags going up for you right now?”
“I don’t follow.” Hugo tilted his head and put the ball back in her court.
“I’m trash,” Junie announced, tossing her hands up in the air. “Look where I took you. Look what happened. I’m no better than those guys in that bar. That’s exactly what my family is like. That’s what my whole hometown is like. Those are my people.”
“You are not trash.” Hugo took her hand and led her to the elevator. He used his key card to hit the top floor button. He could tell she was thinking of a hundred things to say but she obviously kept changing her mind. The doors opened at the private rooftop patio.
“What are we doing up here?” she asked, wrapping her arms self-consciously around herself. “I should just go.”
“You can go anytime you want. You get to decide that. But I wanted to show you something first.” He led her over toward the edge, his fingers laced in hers as though they’d walked like this a hundred times before.
“I’m terrified of heights.” Junie dug her heels in a few feet from the edge of the building.
“The wall is plenty high. You’d have to go on your tiptoes just to see over.”
“I’m still scared.”
“Then hang on tight.” He felt her body press against his arm as she hugged it snugly. It was enough to drive him completely mad, but he tried to stay focused. “I came to this city for the first time a couple of days ago. Look at how beautiful it is.” There was no ignoring the sparkling lights and tall buildings of the city. It was magic from this height. You couldn’t see any crime or hate. You were far enough away to pretend it was perfect.
“It is pretty.” Junie clung even tighter to him as they leaned against the wall and looked out. “But I’m not sure what that changes about tonight.”
“Why change anything. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It was amazing. Do I like getting in bar fights? No. Would I fight a hundred guys who insulted you? You’d better believe it. Those aren’t your people. Just because you grew up around people like that, it doesn’t define you. Trust me, if that were the case you’d hate the guy I’d have turned into. You decide who you are. It’s why you’re here, right? All this hard work and tenacity. It’s leading you toward something, right?”
“That’s the plan. But I’m not sure what I expect is at the end of the rainbow. For people like me, you usually get to the end and find out you’re back where you started. Leaving South Boston is hard. For all the things wrong with that place, for the ugly side that is similar to what you saw tonight, there are some amazing parts too. A loyalty you can’t imagine. It’s insulated, which sometimes feels suffocating and other times feels really safe.”
“Junie, you don’t have to explain anything to me. I don’t think you’re trash. I don’t even think those guys tonight were all that bad. They were drunk. I was an outsider sitting there with the most beautiful girl in the place. When there is a woman as gorgeous as you around them, men are going to act like fools. That’s a story as old as time. It doesn’t matter where they’re from or who they are.”
“What exactly is going on between us?” Junie looked suddenly desperate and scared. Like she was hungry for a kiss but afraid of where it might lead.
“Whatever you want. No more. No less.” He slid a hand down her back, resting it just above her ass and pulled her in closely. “I know what I want. But it’s all up to you. I wouldn’t dare cross the line. Not after seeing the way you were holding that pool stick like a samurai sword.”
Junie gulped and stared at her shoes, ignoring the amazing view. “This
would make a mess of things. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to get to this point? Now one hot guy could be what I screw it all up for? I know better than that.”
With a gentle graze of his hand on her chin Hugo brought her eyes back up to his. “This can be separate. It can be like a vampire.”
“What?”
“It only comes out at night.” He chuckled and was relieved to see her smile. “What you’ve got going on during the day—that doesn’t have to have anything to do with what we could be doing right now. What I could be doing to you. For you.”
“It’ll get complicated.”
“It doesn’t have to. This city is just a steppingstone for me. Same for you. Someday you’ll be back in Boston living a great life. I’ll be off to the next thing. Why not just be here, doing what would feel so damn good.”
She opened her mouth to answer when her phone began playing a silly little tune that must have been her ringtone.
“Someone has terrible timing.” Hugo stepped back, giving her some space as she checked the screen and rolled her eyes.
“It’s my brother. I have to pick up or he’ll send out a search party.”
Hugo nodded, tucked his hands in his pockets and strolled a couple more steps away. He leaned against the wall and looked out over the city lights.
“What is it, Tommy?” There was an annoyed bite in her voice that made Hugo smile. He could picture five overprotective brothers keeping tabs on their firecracker of a sister.
“What?” she asked sharply, slapping a hand over her gaping mouth. “Is he all right? What happened?”
There were moments in Hugo’s life when time stood still. Phone calls in the middle of the night that changed everything. The grave look on Junie’s face made him certain this could be bad. His gut told him to keep his distance. Don’t go to her. Give her space. But when her arm rose up, just a quick motion of reaching for something solid, Hugo felt reeled in like a fish on a hook. Maybe she was reaching for anything to grab but he wanted to be the thing holding her up.
“I’ll get home. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll be there as quick as I can. I love you.” Her eyes were already wet with tears as she clutched her cell phone tightly and hung up.
“What’s going on?”
“My youngest brother, Loch, crashed his car. It’s really bad. They don’t know if he’s going to make it. I have to go home.” She wrapped her hands up in her hair as her eyes went wild with worry. “I don’t have enough money to buy a ticket. My cards are maxed. I used everything to get down here and make this work.”
“It’s all right. I’ll get you home. Just take a deep breath.”
“It’s my little brother. My parents are both gone. We’re all we have. He can’t die.”
“Don’t think about that. Just hang tight for a second.”
Hugo put his phone to his ear and wondered if he was crazy for doing this. Nothing was strategic about this call. Nothing was calculated.
“James, it’s Hugo. I need the jet.”
“Funny.” James sounded distracted by the clamoring of dishes in the background.
“I’m serious. It’s an emergency. I need to get to Boston right now.”
“A business emergency?”
“No.” Hugo wouldn’t even know where to begin to explain this. You see there is this woman and I’m completely enamored with her. Somehow, even though I try to keep people at a healthy distance, she’s made her way into my head and I can’t get her out. And right now she’s crying and I’d literally risk my career and my reputation at this company to make it better.
Luckily James didn’t seem like he enjoyed the details of someone’s life anymore that Hugo wanted to give them. “Fine. But you take a flight home on your own dime. I’ll make a call. It’ll be fueled and on the runway in a half hour.”
“Thank you.”
“You know if my wife wasn’t standing right here reminding me about kindness and compassion and all that garbage I never would have said yes. You’ll want to thank her when you meet her.”
“I will.”
Junie was tucked under his arm now, panicked sobs bubbling up from her throat. “We’ll be there in a couple hours. Let’s get to the airport.”
“You’re coming?”
“I’m not sure I can send you on the company jet without me. Plus I want to make sure you’re all right.”
“I’m not all right.” Junie wobbled, clutching a hand to his chest and holding his bunched up shirt tightly.
“I know. Trust me I know.”
Chapter 12
Hugo’s mother was a good woman. Fair. Honest. Kind. It’s why he could never make sense of her marrying his father. Slimy. Vindictive. Myopic in his desire to gain power. People who knew them from when they were young often said what a magnetic pair they were. But Hugo couldn’t see how these very different people had ever chosen to make a life together.
His childhood was a tug of war. His mother pulled him to the side of warmth and compassion. She fought for his soul. That meant church on Sundays. Soup kitchens. Long talks about history and all that had come before them. His father tugged him the other way. He showed him how to be crass and ruthless. How to put on a public persona and get ugly behind closed doors. Wheeling and dealing was a must. He’d never heard his parents specifically discuss the chasm between their parenting values, but he was certain it must have been all they fought about in private.
When a Senator’s wife dies suddenly, depending on the cause, it can end a career. That was why his father’s team had to work fast. She hadn’t been feeling well. Complications from the flu. Somehow they were able to make that narrative stick. The public story wasn’t that she had been a chronic insomniac for over a year, that desperation to sleep had driven her to medications. She started with prescription drugs and then moved on to more unconventional methods of getting what she needed. Hugo had always believed it was a cocktail of pills meant to dull and numb the rough edges of her pain that finally took her life. But he never pressed. He never asked questions and neither did anyone else. Everything was buried until he finally couldn’t take it anymore.
There had been a fight. A brawl really. Every bottled up, shoved down emotion he’d been holding on to had bubbled to the surface and turned to daggers aimed directly at his dad. That had been the last time they spoke. The last time they bothered to pretend. Two years, four months, and sixteen days ago Hugo had decided he was parentless. Alone. Blissfully alone.
But since he’d met Junie, there was a tug to let her scale the wall that surrounded his heart. That had to stop. Once he got her safely to Boston it was time to regroup and remember that there was no such thing as compatibility. There were just temporary interdependent relationships that eventually fizzled to nothing. Or worse, they imploded and left no survivors.
The plane’s wheels touched down without much bounce, but Junie’s nails were still digging into his forearm. Flying was probably one more phobia of hers.
“I’m so sorry you had to call in this favor. I didn’t mean to put you in this position with James.” Her eyes were red and swollen as she rubbed at them again.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got a car ready to pick us up. We’ll head directly to the hospital. Just try to stay calm. It’s a shock, and you have to keep yourself together if possible.”
“You’ve done this?” Junie asked, coming out of her fog just long enough to scrutinize his face.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve gotten this kind of call before?” She sniffled and stood up as the door to the jet opened.
“I have.” Hugo stood and signaled for Junie to head down the steps that had been rolled to the jet door. Looking at her straight on while he told her would be too hard. At least this way, if they were moving, he might be able to get away with saying a lot less. “My mother died when I was twenty-one. Complications from the flu.” He had yet to bring himself to say out loud that she may have intentionally mixed too many pills. Tonight certai
nly wouldn’t be the night.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Junie spun her hair up into a quick ponytail as they crossed the tarmac and headed to the waiting town car. “I lost my parents too. Both young. My father, I usually say he worked himself to death. But he just had a bad heart and even worse health insurance. My mother had diabetes and decided it wasn’t worth all the trouble of trying to control it. They died two years apart. It’s what made me swear I’d never give up. I’m going to break the cycle for my family. My family . . .” Her voice trailed off as she seemed to be doing the math. Maybe that would include one less brother after tonight. “Tell me about your mother. Distract me.”
“I don’t really talk about her much.” Hugo nodded to the driver who rolled up the partition giving them a little privacy. “She was a saint. You can’t imagine the shit my father put her through. Affairs. Buried scandals. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I find out there are some little half brothers and sisters out there I never knew about.”
“But your father is still in politics right?” Junie was so sweet she couldn’t imagine that such a blemished human could still be in power.
“More successful than ever. His second wife really knows the ropes. She’s on his arm at every event. Smiling. I think she’s smiling. It’s hard to tell with all the Botox. “
“And he’s never gotten caught doing all this garbage?”
“If he does, he knows exactly how to keep it quiet. It’s all about swapping dirty little secrets with other people in power. I’ve seen behind the curtain; trust me you don’t want to know the details. If you did you’d lose all faith in politics.”
“They don’t hound you to follow in his footsteps?”
“Once a month.” Hugo laughed and shook his head. “We’re supposed to be a dynasty. His father and grandfather were both in politics. I’m the prodigal child. The clean slate. The dark horse. The only problem is I hate him and everything he stands for. I’ll never forgive him for the way he treated my mother. He’s lucky I keep my mouth shut and don’t tell all I know. I’ll never follow in his footsteps. It doesn’t matter how many times they ask. I’ve been very strategic in making sure I don’t need him for anything. Once he knew I wouldn’t be the puppet he wanted, he cut me off. I paid my way through college. Fought my way to the top of the pile. I don’t need him. I’ll never need him.”
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