“Good thing Balt is driving.”
“Good thing.”
When we reach the car, I climb into the back with Nantes and relax. Tonight was nice. Better than nice. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a while. It felt like a date to me, and I wonder if Nantesfelt the same way. He treated me the same way he always has, so maybe he doesn’t want his family to know anything went down. That’s fair. We both know it’s temporary.
I still haven’t worked out what’s even gotten into me. I’ve never once considered letting a guy fuck me or wanted to do the same to him, but after hearing Nantes’s fantasy, I’m intrigued. Besides, if I want to explore, who better to do it with than him? He’s the safest person I could be with.
As I gaze out the window, my mind shifts back to the whole reason I’m even here. I kill people. That’s a secret I could never tell anyone, especially Nantes. Even if he somehow understood, it would make him complicit, and I could never do that.
When we get back to the house, Balt drives towards Nantes’s place, but his and Deo’s cell phones buzz at the same time. Balt pauses, waiting as Deo looks at his phone.
“Nonna wants to know where we are. She made dessert. Her famous torte.”
“Ooh, I remember that,” I say.
“Back to the house, then,” Nantes says.
Balt turns us around and parks in front of the main house. The four of us get out just as Brogan is driving up. We all enter and head for the kitchen, where we can hear voices.
Nonna’s face lights up when she sees us. “Look at all my babies.”
“We’re not babies, Nonna,” Brogan complains, grinning and kissing her cheek at the same time.
“You’ll always be babies to me.” Her eagle-eyed gaze shifts to me. “Too bad you can’t stay longer.”
“Longer than I first planned to. I’m gonna work remote for a little bit.”
“Oh?” Joanne, Nantes’s mom asks. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. Overnight fire at my place of business. No one’s hurt, but it’s not a place we can be right now. Fortunately, I brought my laptop with me.”
“It’s wonderful that you can stay,” Larry says.
“It is.” I turn to smile at Nantes. “I feel like I stepped into a time machine. Hanging out here, having Nonna’s baking… It’s nice.”
“How are your folks?” Joanne asks.
I shrug. “They’re fine.”
She exchanges glances with her husband. “You know you’re always welcome here.”
“Thank you.”
We all sit at the table and start passing the torte around. We have coffee too, which is helpful for the sake buzz I’ve got going. I eat my dessert, absorbing the cacophony that is this family, and feeling for the first time in so long that I’m actually home. It’s not Chicago or where my folks live. It’s here, with Nantes and his family. Sucks that it’s not the reality though.
Chapter 16
Nantes
Back at my house, the two of us flop down on the couch. It’s still reasonably early, all things considered, but after last night I could stand to go to bed early.
“Tonight was nice,” Vanian says. “It felt like old times, but better.”
“Better how?”
“Now I know enough to appreciate it even more.” He turns his head in my direction. “Dinner felt like a date to me. Not just friends hanging out.”
Before I can say anything, he scrunches his nose.
