“He can.”
My brother is more hopeful than I am, but he has far more experience with our criminal justice system than I do. Maybe he is right. Maybe I will get off with a slap on the wrist, but that would take the biggest miracle of my life and a hell of a lot of skill on Hal’s part. He is a great lawyer, but sometimes that isn’t enough.
But I have a bigger worry.
Time inside doesn’t bother me. If my brother could survive, I know I could too.
My biggest problem will be telling Lulu what happened and that I’ll be gone before we have a chance to really get going.
9
LULU
“Hey,kid. What’s the face for?” my uncle Vinnie asks as he slides into the booth across from me.
I turn my face toward him and away from the window facing the street. “Something’s wrong with the guy I’m seeing.”
“Break up with him,” he says quickly, without even a moment to think of anything else. “If he’s already a problem, he’ll always be one.”
I smile at my uncle, loving that he’s forever trying to look out for me. “He’s not a problem, Unc, but there is something wrong. He called and wanted to talk to me, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that something’s wrong, and I don’t know what it could be.”
My uncle blinks at me a few times like he’s processing all the words I just said. Hell, it would takeme a minute or two too, if I hadn’t been the one who said them.
“When do you talk to him about whatever is wrong?” he asks, being patient with me like he always is.
People would think that my uncle would be the impatient type. He’s an ex-pro footballer and one of the most well-known players in Chicago. There are people who come to the bar on the off chance they’ll get to meet the great Vinnie Gallo, quarterback and football savior of the Windy City. But to me, he’s my uncle, and he’s a sweet man who only wants the best for his family and friends.
“He’s on his way here.”
“I’ll stick around in case I need to kick his ass.”
I laugh as soon as the words come out of his mouth, trying to picture Oliver and my uncle going at it. “That’s unnecessary.”
“Why?” he asks, tilting his head and staring at me like I’m off my rocker.
“He’s nice. You’re nice.”
“We’re men, Lulu. We’re all shitheads.”
“You’re not a shithead,” I say, thinking back on all my great memories with my uncle when I was growing up.
“Wait. Which guy is this?” He makes it sound like I have a ton of men in my life who are dying to date me.
“Oliver.”
“The one who saved your life?”
Of course word has already spread around the family about Oliver’s heroic act. “That’s the one.”
“He’s only half a shithead, then,” Uncle Vinnie says.
The loud rumble of an engine draws my attention back to the street. It’s Oliver. My stomach twists as he cuts the engine and climbs out, looking so damn sexy from my position.
“That him?”
I nod slowly without looking at my uncle. “It is.”
“A man his size missed his calling. He should’ve been a football player,” he says, always looking at everyone from a sports angle.
