“It’s safe.” Luke’s fingers tightened, then relaxed until he let his hand fall in his lap. “Because I feel the same.” He picked at a loose thread at the cuff of his jeans. “Glad you came here. Glad you talked to me about your dad.” He paused a beat. “You know I’ll do anything I can to help, right?”
“Help with what?”
“You,” he said quickly. “The business. Your family too, even if I want to punch your dad in the fucking mouth.”
That all-consuming feeling was bubbling up again, welling in my throat, and I had to swallow a couple of times so I didn’t blurt out something mushy.
Instead I twined my fingers in his hair again, resuming my scratching. “Well,” I said, rolling onto my back and staring at the ceiling. “I know that now.”
“Yeah,” his husky voice replied. “You do.”
I smiled, ignoring the pain in my lip and the throbbing in my eye. Because I was falling in love with Luke Rawlings, and I hoped to do everything I could to make him fall with me.
* * *
Luke: I told Nadia about us.
Dominic: Was she like, “why are you dating some kid who gets his ass beat by his father”?
Luke: Yeah actually she did.
Dominic: goddamnit
Luke: But she said she saw sparks at Thanksgiving or some shit. I had to tell her you’re the brother of Micah’s friend. She laughed.
Dominic: she finds this amusing??
Luke: She thinks it’s fucking hilarious. She also said you have a nice ass.
Dominic: Damn right i do
Luke: She wants us to go over for dinner. I told her i have a date in 2018 open.
Dominic: lmao asshole.
Luke: I try. Have you spoken to your father yet?
Dominic: no, but I brought it up with my mother. she’s stopped being a hard head, at least
Luke: It’s a start.
* * *
Luke: Have you talked to your sister yet?
Dominic: no, but I will soon :/
Luke: Don’t do it just because I’m on your ass about it.
Dominic: No! I want to tell her. I need to tell her. It’s just hard, man. Her life is a mess because of all this family stuff. She’s been suspended for skipping so much, and my father grounded her for the entire semester. He doesn’t even want her playing that video game she’s always on with Micah. Now I get to be like oh hey, i’m banging your only friend’s dad.
Luke: shit.
Dominic: yeah
Luke: Maybe we should all do something then. So she can get to know me.
Dominic: .…
Dominic: who are you??
Luke: lol. I don’t know. You did this to me, you asshole.
Dominic: :D
Dominic: I’m so proud
Luke: Fuck you.
Dominic: uh huh. Later.
* * *
Luke: I have a thing to tell you.
Dominic: if you break up with me, i’ll shank you
Luke: Micah asked me about you.
Dominic: what about me?
Luke: If we’re banging.
Dominic: wut
Luke: His exact words were “dating”.
Dominic: oh fuck fuck fuck. What did you say??
Luke: I’m sorry. I couldn’t lie.
Dominic: it’s ok. I get that. How did he react?
Luke: He was okay about it. He didn’t seemed thrilled only because you’re Adriana’s brother. Chelle was excited tho. She thinks you’re cute.
Dominic: did he tell Adri?
Luke: No, and I asked him to wait, but he’s a kid. I didn’t want to force your hand but… it’s inevitable that he’ll tell her.
Dominic: nah, i get it. how’d he figure it out?
Luke: Teenagers are more observant than you think. He noticed at Thanksgiving. Said he’s never seen me look at someone that way before.
Dominic: why can’t you have oblivious kids?
Luke: Yeah. I know.
Dominic: Adri’s home from work in like an hour. I’ll tell her then. just… try to keep your kid from texting her for now.
Luke: I hid his phone.
Dominic: seriously?
Luke: It’s in Chelle’s tampon box. He’ll never look there.
Dominic: wow you’re fucking brilliant.
Luke: Good luck.
Dominic: thanks, babe. I’ll need it.
Chapter Seventeen
Dominic
Adriana didn’t come home from the deli on time, and I worried about her meeting Micah somewhere and learning the truth on her own. My nerves were more on edge than they’d been in a while, which was sad. I shouldn’t dread having a conversation with my sister so much, but I was goddamn terrified of breaking the fragile bond we’d only recently managed to rebuild after my years of being away from the house.
Sighing, I quit pacing and sat on the edge of my bed. Biscuit stared at me from the floor, unmoved by my obvious aggravation.
“Shut up,” I said.
Shockingly, Biscuit didn’t respond.
My phone vibrated and I yanked it out, expecting to see a text from Adriana.
Garrett: hey.
Dominic: uh… is the world coming to an end?
Garrett: shut up. I finally saw the message about your sister loving Kai.
Dominic: cool. Good to know you check my messages two weeks after i send them
Garrett: whatever. The point is, Kai got her a couple of tickets for FallenCon.
Dominic: again with FallenCon. What the fuck is that?
Garrett: a convention for Fallen World Online. It’s in Boston. Kai is invited as a panelist and guest, but he can’t go because of his social anxiety.
Dominic: aw, that’s awful :(
Garrett: it’s fine. He’s going to Skype during the panel
Dominic: Cool. i’m happy for him.
Garrett: thanks, man. I appreciate it. Anyway, he got a few tickets for Adriana and her friends. He also got a special pass for her to go to the FWO Twitch panel and do a meet and greet with other FWO streamers. Kai will be streaming but his chat regulars and mods should be there.
Dominic: dude. Your man is the man.
Garrett: pretty much.
Dominic: this may be just the thing that saves me…
Garrett: from?
Dominic: from the conversation where I tell her I’m fucking her boyfriend’s father
Garrett: …
Dominic: yep.
Garrett: glad this bisexual thing is working out for you.
Dominic: fuck yeah it did. I’m in love with a silver fox
Garrett: that’s nice.
Dominic: youre an awful friend
Garrett: answer me one thing.
Dominic: wha
Garrett: youre a total fucking bottom arent you?
Dominic: ;) you called it on the FOB, bro
Garrett: ha. I knew you protested too much.
Dominic: you got me
Garrett: heh. Well, im happy you found someone.
Dominic: thanks man!
The grin on my face faded when I heard loud voices upstairs. Adriana and my father were home, which meant the dude-bros who manned the deli at night had taken over. Time to have the dreaded discussion.
I shot off a quick message that I’d talk to Garrett later and hurried upstairs to find my sister. She’d retreated to her bedroom. When she let me in, Bring Me the Horizon was already blaring.
“Can we talk?”
Adriana plopped down on her bed with a shrug. For the first time in forever, she didn’t have her gaming computer turned on with a fantasy world spreading across the monitor. I wondered if he’d really cancelled her subscription to FWO.
“How was work?”
“That’s what you wanted to talk about?” she asked doubtfully. “Work was work. Dad tried to talk, I ignored him, he got mad, and so on.”
“Maybe you should quit giving him the cold shoulder.”
“Maybe he should unground me,”
she shot back.
“Kiddo, you got suspended. I think a punishment is warranted.”
Adriana scowled. “Not for the entire semester.”
“Look at it this way,” I said. “He unsuspended your phone.”
“True.”
Grabbing her computer chair, I sat on it backwards and tried to meet her eye. “Okay, I really do need to talk to you about something.”
Her mouth sunk further. She pushed herself back on the bed, knees drawing up. “You’re freaking me out, Nicky.”
“It’s not… bad. I don’t think.”
“Not helping.”
“Fuck. Okay.” I took a deep breath, tried to come up with a tactful way of bringing it up, and went with, “Me and Micah’s dad have been hanging out lately.”
Adriana stared at me blankly.
“We’re… a thing.”
“A thing? What the hell does that mean?”
I licked my lips and shifted on the chair. How the hell was I this nervous to confess my love life to a sixteen-year-old? “We’re in a relationship.”
For the first few seconds there was no reaction, and then Adriana was jumping off the bed and backing away from me. “Please tell me this is a joke.”
“No, it’s not a joke. C’mon, kiddo.” I stood up, pushing the chair out of the way. “It’s no big deal, okay? We didn’t plan it. We didn’t even realize our families were connected until they all walked into the deli that day.”
“On Columbus day?” she screeched. “Oh my fucking God! That’s why you acted like such a freak.”
“Well, I didn’t act like a freak—”
“Yes, you did.” Her eyes had gone from large as saucers to narrowed in icy blue slits. “You’ve known for that long, and you didn’t tell me.”
A tidal wave of guilt swept over me. “I was afraid to tell you. I was afraid to drive you away when everything else in the house is already so fucked up.”
“Smart,” she said sharply. “Because you were right. They already think I’m a mess, and now my brother is screwing their father. And you’re in a relationship? What’s next, marriage?”
I had no response, so I stood there and let her vent.
“And what does that make Micah and me?” This time, her voice cracked under the weight of the question. “He’ll never like me now.”
“Adriana, that’s not true. Anyone can see that the kid is sweet on you.”
She shook her head, eyes welling with tears. “Just forget it, Nicky. Just leave me alone.”
“No! Please, don’t be this way,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was just scared after the way you reacted last time.” When she didn’t come back at me with an angry response, I pushed forward with a last burst of desperation. “But hey, besides the Jerry Springer drama, I have good news for you.”
“What news could possibly be good after that lapful of weirdness you just threw on me?”
“You know your boy Gaymer Kai? And how I told you I served with his boyfriend? Well, I got in touch with them and they’re gonna give you a few tickets for FallenCon. Complete with a meet-and-greet pass for the Twitch panel or whatever the fuck. Cool as hell, right?”
I’m not sure what I expected. A scream of excitement. Her to jump up and down? Hell, I’d even settle for a slight smile. But no. She just started crying harder.
“I’m grounded, remember? Dad will never let me go to Boston.”
“Oh fuck.”
“Yeah. Exactly.” Adriana turned away to curl up on her bed. “Can you just go away?”
With no way to lessen the salt I’d just poured in her wound, I pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head and edged out of the room. Damn. What a mess.
I started to retreat to the basement to sulk or mournfully text Luke, but found myself going to the kitchen to find my father. He was exactly where I expected him to be—sitting at the table with his before-bed coffee and reading the newspaper. Considering he worked in a deli where the Staten Island Advance was delivered every morning, you’d think he got his fill of the news all day, but the man never stopped moving at work long enough to read the front page. So he did it at night with his coffee and the silence of the house.
“Hey.”
Duffy barely spared me a glance. “Nicky.”
I sat at the chair opposite of him. “We ever gonna go back to normal, Pops?”
He shrugged.
“I’m the one who had the shiner. Why are you so salty?”
He cast me a discreet side-eye. “You think I’m mad at you?”
“Man, everyone in this fucking house is mad at me.”
“Except your mother. To her, you’re an angel.”
I shrugged. “I’m not gonna fight that kind of praise when you and Adriana are giving me the cold shoulder.”
That got his attention. “Why’s she doing that?”
“Doesn’t approve of my choice of boyfriends.”
Duffy went red. His eyes flew back to the paper. “All right, Nicky.”
“So now you’re homophobic?”
“I’m a liberal.”
Rolling my eyes, I moved the newspaper away from him. “Come on, Pops. Don’t be that way. Does it really bother you?”
He snatched the paper back with a dark glare. “It bothers me that you had to make it in the park like a degenerate.”
“We were hugging. My knees weren’t in the fucking air regardless of what whoever has been saying. It was probably that asshole John Connolly who spread the rumor. He mentioned having seen me running lately, and I’ve been jogging with the guy I’m seeing.” To my surprise, a glimmer of relief crossed his face. “Besides,” I said. “He has kids. He doesn’t do shady stuff like that.”
“He has kids?” Now Duffy looked horrified again. “You’re not screwing a married guy, are you?”
“He’s divorced.”
“Ah.”
“Seriously, he’s a good dude.” Why was I trying to convince him? “He’s even been encouraging me to apply to the EMT program.”
Duffy made a face, and I was once again reminded of why I avoided this topic with him.
“Anyway, I think you’d like him.”
“Okay.”
He went back to reading the paper like the discussion was over, and I marveled at how oddly normal this felt. Was he really not upset? Adriana had seemed to think he’d kick me out of the damn house, but… maybe that was just a testament to how poorly she viewed him. How both of us viewed him. His bark was so loud and so harmful that we tended to make him the bogeyman in our minds.
“Dad.”
Duffy’s cheek ticked. I hadn’t called him dad in years.
“What now?”
“I want to help you.”
“Not tonight, Nicky. Please.”
“Then when?” This time, I folded the newspaper so he couldn’t read it anymore. “Every day that passes by is another day adding up to another week and another month without you paying the rent on the store. How long do we have before we’re evicted?” When he didn’t answer, I pressed on. “Look, I don’t want you to think that I don’t get it. Cuz I do. You hate accepting help. You don’t like fucking handouts. You don’t like me acting as though I know your business better than you do, and believe me—I don’t think I do. Not really. But I do think I could help.”
A stilted silence followed my speech, so I went on with another. I’d make him see reason, damn it. Or at least I’d make him listen to me.
“Adriana deserves to not have her life uprooted, Pops. She’s not the easiest kid to deal with because she grew up in this crazy house. All she knows is being defensive and on edge, always expecting things to go wrong or for someone to come down on her, and she’s like that because of y—us. We taught her to be like that.”
Duffy sighed. “I know. Believe me, I know.”
“That’s why she hates going to school. She skips a lot, but she keeps up with her classes. Hell, Dad, all she does is sneak up to her room and play video games. Sh
e’s not a bad kid. Just… not social.”
“So you think I shouldn’t punish her?” he challenged. “It wasn’t just a couple of days. She had thirty counted absences. A truancy officer came to the house. We’re lucky they’re not saying we’re negligent parents.”
“Oh. Damn.” With that information, I could now see why he’d slammed the grounded-hammer so hard. “Okay, well, the point is… she’s not having an easy time and it will only get worse for her if you lose the business and the damn house. If you won’t accept my help because of your pride, at least consider it to spare Adriana going through hell.”
Duffy released a low breath and sat up straight, his arms sliding against the table. I couldn’t tell if my words were having an effect on him until he gave the slightest of nods.
“I have money.” The start of the conversation was like déjà vu. Minus the shoving and punching. “I have about twenty thousand in my bank account. I was saving it to get the hell out of here, but…” I geared myself up for mocking. “After eight years of giving away pieces of myself to serve my country, I think I can use that cash to help my family.”
Duffy stared at me until the back of my neck grew warm and my shoulders stiffened. I looked away, swallowing hard, and tried to think of a plan C, but he finally spoke.
“You give me the money and I sign over half the business to you.”
My gaze flew to his. “Dad—”
“No.” He slapped his hand against the table. “You want to give me that much money? Then you get a stake. It don’t mean you gotta work there every day until you die, Dominic. It just means you own part of it.”
It also meant I was responsible for it if he got the shop into trouble again.
“If that’s what you want then there’s another condition,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“You take some advice on how to make changes in the shop. Changes that will maybe save you money and make some more. You can’t keep running it like it’s 1993.”
“And who’s gonna give me advice? You?” Duffy snorted. “You just got done telling me that you don’t know nothing about the business.”
Fast Connection (Cyberlove #2) Page 18
