Enzo huffed out a humorless laugh. “Baby, I’d probably let you take a sledgehammer to my nuts if you looked at me the way you did that night.”
Seven laughed softly. “I really thought we had a good night.”
“We had a great night,” Enzo assured him.Life-changing, even.“I’m just an…”
“Emotionally-stunted man baby?”
“Sure,” Enzo said. “That works.”
Seven exhaled through his nose. “Look at you, becoming self-aware.”
“I have my moments,” Enzo said. For a while, they both fell silent. He knew he was pressing his luck, but he couldn’t let it go. “I know it’s none of my business, but why have you been coming here so often?”
“The truth?” Seven asked.
“Duh,” Enzo countered.
Seven gave him a wry smile. “Because Vince said it would drive you crazy.”
He was going to kill his brother with his bare fucking hands. Of course, he was responsible for all of this. Meddling asshole.
Enzo leaned in, snagging one of Seven’s hands, grasping it loosely. “You get that you drive me crazy without any help from my family, right?”
Seven shrugged, looking at their joined hands. “It’s pretty obvious that you’re into me.”
Enzo chuckled. “Oh, yeah?”
“You’re really bad at hiding it.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Enzo said, letting his words die off.
Seven’s fingers curled around his. “It doesn’t matter, though.”
Enzo’s stomach clenched. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t do it.”
“Can’t do what?” Enzo asked, not following.
Seven was silent for a solid minute. “You met my mom, right?”
“Yeah, she’s great,” he said, unsure why the conversation had just taken such a sharp left turn.
“She is. Amazing, even. Smart. Funny. Successful. Gorgeous. The total package. She was a professional model when she met my dad. She was on the cover of magazines.”
Enzo nodded, hoping it encouraged him to continue. Seven’s mother had been all those things and more.
“My dad, on the other hand, is a complete loser. He’s been in and out of prison so many times he practically has a cell with his own name on it. He treats women like they’re disposable. He treats my mom like she’s an option. And—for some reason I can’t even fathom—she lets him.”
“She loves him?” Enzo asked.
“She does,” Seven agreed. “She loves him so much she gives him her money, her time, her life. You know what he gives her? Nothing. And she just accepts it. She lives her life like she’s single. But whenever he calls, she goes to him.”
“People are…complex.”
Seven shook his head. “I’m never going to do that. Ever. Not for anyone,” he vowed. “But especially not for you.”
Enzo’s eyes went wide. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”
