Fuuuck.
“Baby, I see I need to teach you another lesson about who you belong to.”
She looks up at me with the sweetest smile and licks her lips. “You know how much I love that, baby. Sometimes I need a special reminder.” She winks at me, and I almost die of embarrassment. “See,” Fran whispers, giving me a wink. “Works every time.”
“Walsh,” Bear says, staring at me up and down as he wraps an arm around his woman and pulls her against him. “You haven’t changed a bit in the last…what? Ten years?” He extends a hand to me, something he never did when I was young.
I stare down at his open palm, wondering and thinking it may be a trap. But then I give in, knowing I have to trust someone eventually. “More like seventeen, sir.”
“Hmm. Manners? Never had them before,” he says to me, raising one eyebrow as if he’s not convinced I’m a different man than I was when I was eighteen.
“Growing up will do that to a person,” I reply as he releases my hand, and Rosie slides up next to me, holding my arm.
“Be nice, Uncle Bear. I’m sure you’re not like your eighteen-year-old self.”
Bear laughs loudly. “I don’t know how I survived. I had a death wish and a bad attitude.”
Rosie’s father enters the foyer with his wife next to him. “Attitude’s still intact, old man,” Joe says to Bear.
“Piss off with old-man shit.” Bear ticks his chin toward Joe, eyeing the salt-and-pepper in his hair. “You aren’t young anymore.”
I’m so focused on Bear and Joe, I don’t notice Suzy Gallo, Rosie’s mom, as she walks up to us. And without warning, she pulls me into an embrace. “Thank you,” she mutters into my T-shirt. “Thank you for saving our Rosie.”
I peer over at Rosie, and she shrugs. “Go with it,” she whispers. “She’s emotional.”
Suzy pulls her head back, glaring at her daughter. “And you’re not? You cry every time the ASPCA commercial comes on television.”
“Mom, those poor animals,” Rosie says in the saddest voice. “I want to save them all.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You two are every sob story’s dream and total suckers. I don’t even want to know how much you’ve sent them over the years,” Joe says, running his hand down the side of his beard.
Suzy looks away from her husband and stares up at me with the same blue eyes as her daughter. “I hope you’re hungry. We have a lot of food,” she says, skating over the money issue for the animal charity.
“Famished, ma’am.”
“Good.” She smiles, deepening a few fine lines near her eyes.
“Dylan,” Joe says, waiting for me to look his way, and when I do, he continues. “Can I talk to you a minute?”
Rosie squeezes my arm before releasing me, giving me my answer before I have a chance to reply. “Sure,” I say, praying this doesn’t end in disaster.
We’ve never had a civil conversation in my life, but I was also an asshole teenager, and he was an old man who complained about everything.
“We’ll only be a minute, darling,” Joe says to Rosie and not me. “I won’t keep him. I promise.”
Rosie nods before popping up on her tiptoes and kissing my cheek. “He’s not a complete asshole,” she whispers, reminding me. “I’ll be waiting in the kitchen when you’re done.”
“Got it, wildcat,” I tell her before looking to Joe.
He’s standing near what seems to be a study off the foyer. “After you,” he says with his arm extended.
I walk in, looking around at the rows upon rows of books and four leather chairs in a circle with a large wooden table in the middle.
“Sit,” he tells me.
Never in a million years would I have believed I’d be seeing Rosie Gallo or that Joe Gallo wouldn’t be acting like an absolute tool to me and warning his daughter away from me.
He did in the beginning. I heard the shitty things he said, but I no longer see the same distaste for me that he didn’t bother to hide before.
He takes a seat opposite me and runs his hands up and down his thighs before leaning forward and staring straight at me. “First, I want to talk about the guy from the other night.”
“Twice, he’s laid hands on her, and twice, I’ve beaten him. He shouldn’t—”
“He’s been relocated,” he says calmly.
I tilt my head and furrow my brows. “Relocated?”
He nods. “You’ll never see him again.”
I blink, staring at his calm demeanor, knowing those words don’t mean the guy moved out of the town or state. “You…”
“I, nothing. The man won’t be a problem again, but I want to thank you for looking out for my daughter both times he touched her.”
“She did most of the work the last time.”
Joe smiles a proud papa smile, something I’d never been given from my own father. “She always was a quick learner and tougher than her twin.”
“She’s one of the best,” I reply.
“I know I was an asshole to you in the past,” he says, leaving any talk of the guy behind us.
Well, alrighty then.
I guess it’s not my place to ask for more details. Secrets only stay secrets when as few people as possible know the information, and I’m clearly not part of the inner circle…yet.
“No, sir. You weren’t.”
He tilts his head the opposite direction as he leans back in the chair, staring at me with a look that says he knows I’m lying through my teeth. “I was wrong. I judged you based on the type of man your father was, and that wasn’t right of me to do. You are not him, and you were a kid.”
I stare back at him, unsure of what to say. “Well…”
He holds up a hand. “I know you hated me, which was fair. I was never kind to you when you were an older kid. When you were younger, I was, but then you turned into an angry, mouthy teenager.”
“You would, too, if you grew up in my house.”
He nods and drops his hand back to his leg. “I’m sure I would’ve been mouthier and angrier.”
“Impossible,” I mumble.
“When you were younger, I called Child Services a few times about what was happening at your house.”
My eyes widen, never having known who made the calls. “It was you?”
“Yeah, kid. Saw shit that didn’t sit right with me, but every time they came out, they didn’t do shit. Figured maybe I was reading everything wrong.”
I shake my head. “You weren’t, but my old man was good at covering his tracks, and his drinking buddy had connections, making it damn near impossible for anyone to take us.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
I shrug. “Shit happens. What’s in the past is staying there, buried with my old man. I appreciate you looking out for us, even though nothing came of it. Sure as hell pissed him off for a long time afterward. He always figured it was one of us who called. Took some beatings for it too.”
A shadow passes across his face. “Fuck,” he hisses, closing his eyes and taking a depth breath. When his eyes open again, the emotion is hidden. “I never meant for that to happen.”