“It was stupid,” Levi said, stealing a fry off my plate.
Something in the back of my head tingled, and I watched Levi, noticing that although the dark mood was still there, something else was too. I couldn’t figure it out. Levi had gotten a lot better at hiding his feelings. Then again, he’d always had the talent for that, even when he had been younger. Clearly, he had honed it over the years, but...he was still Levi, and I was still me, at least as much as we could be while there was still a massive canyon between us. A gap filled with the years we had been apart and lived separate lives that would have shaped and shifted our personalities, and, for that matter, our morality.
Had he taken a life, and if he had, what was that like for him? Had he been horrified, had he been relieved, had he learned to make peace with it so that causing more death was something he could do in the same way that I could read an opponent’s body language and pivot around a blow without thinking? What about love? Had he found love, or had he been like me, the sailor atop a ship that sailed through open waters and only made brief stops in a port that seemed interesting for the night? How rich had he grown and how much of it had gone to his head, if any.
There were stories upon stories locked in our heads and hearts that the other knew nothing about, but there was still the possibility that the core of who we were, of the people we had been when we had been inseparable, that?—
Pleasure. That’s what I was seeing under the dark shadow that had taken over his face, it was goddamn pleasure.
“Levi,” I said slowly, watching him carefully as he looked at me. It was a curious glance at first, but then shifted back to me with a snap as he read the suspicion on my face. “I would have thought you’d be...I don’t know, a lot more…somethingto find out that the owner disappeared.”
“That was years ago, Dom,” he said softly, taking another fry. “I still mourn my mother, and nurse a great hatred for him, but I’m not going to hang onto it for years or lash out, because that asshole and his butt buddy disappeared years ago.”
“Wait, the other guy disappeared too?” Micah asked.
“He did,” I said, cocking my head at Levi.
“Huh...I didn’t hear you mention that,” Micah said, grunting as some of his food slid off his plate and onto the bench.
I ignored him as he cleaned up his mess and instead continued to stare at Levi. I didn’t know if it was to his credit, but Levi stared back at me without a hint of guilt or shame in his eyes...but no pride either. I couldn’t read what the emotion was on his face; it was something altogether new, at least for Levi.
“Quit,” Levi said and looked away, knocking his knee into mine with a huff.
That brief touch shocked me out of my one-sided staring contest, and I turned forward again. Jesus, that slight touch had felt like he had run his hand up the inside of my thigh rather than just smacking his knee into mine. Christ, I remember when his knees had been the biggest thing on his scrawny legs, and now it felt like he had some actual heft to his limbs. Not that I hadn’t already seen with my own two eyes that the skinny teenager I had known and loved was gone, replaced with a man I didn’t know anymore.
Micah finished and sighed when he pulled out his phone. “Oh shit. I forgot, I was supposed to help Dad and Mason. I need to go.”
“Alright, text me when you get back in one piece,” I told him, earning a surprised look. “What? You’re thirteen, you have a bus pass, and you know your way around. It’s the middle of the day. Micah, I’m not going to escort you back like a little kid. But you’d better hope you do what you’re supposed to do, because if not, I’m going to have to treat you like a little kid.”
“Yeah, sure, okay,” he said, getting up so quickly he almost upended his plate of half-eaten food. It was like he thought that if he didn’t get out of here quickly enough, I would change my mind about letting him go. “Sure. Promise.”
“You’d better,” I said with a snort as he slid out of the booth.
“It was nice meeting you, Levi,” Micah said. “And uh...thanks, Dom.”
“You’re welcome, I guess,” I said as he walked off.
“How old is he?” Levi asked.
“Thirteen.”
“And he’s excited about riding the bus on his own?”
“Moira and Jace have been arguing about how much freedom they should give him. Everyone knows he’s smart and has always been pretty responsible, but Moira knows firsthand how much trouble all of us got into growing up in that hotel without Matty and Marcus constantly breathing down our necks. And she swears up and down that the city has only gotten worse.”
“Has it?”
“I don’t know. I know you can’t open local news without hearing about gang violence this, gang violence that,” I told him with a snort. “Might you know anything about that?”
“I can read the news as well,” he said, giving me a push. “Get on the other side if you insist on pestering me.”
“I’ve always pestered you,” I said, scooting out of the booth. Not because he asked, but because that knock of his leg against mine had sent my mind whirling with possibilities and ideas that I really didn’t want to entertain right now. I was going to stick to being glad he hadn’t taken off the moment Micah had dipped out. “That’s kind of my job.”
“No, it isn’t,” he said, eyeing the table and taking in everything that was laid out. “How’s the coffee?”
“Ever since the last owner disappeared under mysterious circumstances,” I said, with more emphasis than necessary, as I held my mug up to the woman behind the counter to signify what I wanted and held up two fingers to gesture toward Levi and me, “the coffee has got a lot better.”
“I have the distinct feeling you have something to say, but you aren’t saying it,” Levi said as he leaned back in the booth. “Which is not like you.”
