“Max was in a little bit of shock,” Dominic told Hal. “But I’ve been keeping an eye on him, and there’s no concussion.”
I was touched that he’d been looking after me, but Hal only frowned, no doubt focusing on the shock part. “There’s an urgent care place not a mile from here. It wouldn’t be out of the way.”
“Hal.” I pulled his hand off my face but didn’t let it go immediately. Hal was a worrier, and naturally tactile. When I’d come out in high school, everyone had assumed Hal and I were dating, we were so close. That assumption couldn’t be farther from the truth—Hal had wanted to talk about nothing but girls and football, even when he had his arm slung around my shoulders or his feet buried under my legs on the couch.
Dominic, on the other hand…
What was I saying again?
“I really am fine. It’s just some bruises and a few scrapes, not worth going to a doctor for. If I feel worse in the morning,” I continued, already knowing what he was going to say, “I promise we can go then. But after the long drive, and the meeting I spent all morning getting ready for…” I shrugged. “I really am just tired. And I need to get back to the city tomorrow.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that earlier, but…” Hal shared a look with Dominic I wasn’t sure how to interpret. “The weather is supposed to get worse before it gets better. Plus, with your car being broken, you’re not going to make it back to the city until Monday.”
Shit. I shut my eyes and resisted the urge to snap, because the universe really didn’t seem to understand just how little I wanted to be in Edgewood for an entire weekend. I wanted to go back to how things had been five minutes ago, when Dominic was just the incredibly good-looking cop who’d picked me up off the side of the road and shared dinner with me, instead of the brother of my best friend who I hadn’t even recognized. I wanted to see the girls and sleep in the cozy spare room, make pancakes for everyone in the morning, then get back to work securing this client and my future with the firm.
Looked like I wasn’t going to get what I wanted, and that was no one’s fault. If I had to stay in Edgewood, at least I’d brought my laptop and could still get some work done. “Fine. That’ll give me extra time to get my car to a mechanic and find a rental. But I’m definitely leaving on Monday.”
Hal clapped his hand on my shoulder—gently, for him, but it was right where the seat belt had dug in when I hit the snowbank. I held in my wince, though. I didn’t need another push toward urgent care. “The girls will be thrilled. Let’s get back home, huh? You can get a shower and jump into bed.”
“Sounds great,” I said then turned to Dinah. “What do I owe you for our dinners?”
She and Dominic began to protest at the same time. “No, honey, it’s on the house—” “Really, I can’t let you—”
“What’s that?” I held a hand up to my ear. “Forty dollars? Damn, prices have gotten steep around here since I’ve been gone.”
Dinah put her hands on her hips and huffed. “Forty dollars? For two burgers? Does this look like the Ritz to you? Ten bucks a plate, same as it was before. If you’d wanted goat cheese, now, that would be extra.”
“Twenty, got it.” I pulled two twenties out of my wallet and put them down on the table. “Keep the change.”
“Max, no, that’s way too much!”
“Don’t tell me how to tip my favorite waitress,” I told her and held out my hand to shake. “Thanks for the burger. It was delicious.”
“Oh, stop that,” she muttered and used my hand to pull me in for a hug. She was warm, smelled like coffee, and reminded me a little bit of my mother.
Once I let her go, I looked at Dominic, who was frowning at the money. “Please let me treat,” I said to him. “It’s the least I can do for making you go out in this weather to rescue me.”
“Rescuing people is my actual job, Max. I don’t mind doing it.”
It gave me a weird little thrill in my chest to hear him call me Max. “Still.”
“All right, Mister Moneybags, enough.” Hal took me by the shoulder and turned me toward the door. “Let’s get out of here.” He called back to Dominic, “You still coming over tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’ve got the next few days off,” he said.
“Great. I’ve still got to work a half day tomorrow morning, and with all the fresh snow we’ve gotten, the girls have plans for you, Uncle Nicky.”
Dominic smiled. It made his whole face light up, and I suddenly couldn’t look away. “Tell them to get ready, because I won’t go easy on them like I did the last time.”
“Marnie said you cried,” Hal retorted, opening the door. The merry little jingle of the bell wasn’t enough to distract me from the sudden blast of painfully cold wind. I zipped up my jacket and shoved my hands into the pockets.
“Anybody would cry after taking an ice ball to the face!” Dominic called out as the door closed behind us.
…
Hal’s familiar old Toyota truck was still warm inside, thank God. He grabbed my bag from Dom’s Jeep and slung it into the backseat as I settled in the front. It was a little strange, seeing Steph’s car seat back there. Ariel had always kept it in her car—the family car, she’d called it. Hal’s had been almost solely a work vehicle.
He caught me looking, of course. “She took the CRV with her,” he said gruffly as he shut the door. “Guess I should count myself lucky she bothered to take the car seat out before she left.”
“I’m so sorry.” It was inadequate, like the first and seventh and tenth times I’d told him that over the phone, yet it was all I could think to say. “And she hasn’t…you haven’t talked for…”
“About a month,” Hal said, his lips thin. “She called around once a week before that, and then last time she made it clear she wasn’t coming back, so I just…stopped answering. We communicate via email, mostly.”
Ouch. That had to be hard on the kids. “How are the girls handling it?”
“They’re fine. They’ve got me, they’ve got Nicky, and they go to a counselor the school recommended once a week.” He started up the truck then glanced at me. “You’re not gonna have a problem with my brother being around, right?”
I frowned. “Why would I have a problem with that?”
Hal shrugged. “Fuck if I know, but it seems safer to ask outright than to assume things anymore.”
“I won’t have a problem with Dominic being around. He’s your family, Hal. Of course he should be around, especially with everything that’s going on.” He hadn’t been, not for years, thanks to his time in the army. I’d seen Hal’s sister Christine twice in New York, but never Dominic.