“Not at work, no.” I stood beside him and helped him remove his arm from his hoodie.
“You scared me for a minute there.”
“Gio,” I warned.
“Yeah, yeah, professional, I know.”
“What’s going on with your leg?” I asked as I started to do range of motion stretches on his shoulder.
“I go in tomorrow for another x-ray. I guess they take off the cast, x-ray it, then cast me up again?”
“Yes. It’s kind of cool how they take off the cast and then reapply it. Your leg will look tiny compared to your other one. Be prepared.”
He laughed. “Yeah, Kate warned me.”
“Maybe you’ll be able to put some weight on it with your walker. Then the real fun begins.”
“I just want out of this fuckin’ chair,” he hissed.
“I know.” I smiled. “You will be. Just don’t rush it. You don’t want to do any further damage to it.”
“Workin’ on it.”
“Why’d you make Katie cry?”
“According to Maisie, I have both anger and entitlement issues.”
“Ooph, she said that?”
“She sure did.”
“And do you?”
He sighed, taking my hand with his good one and pulling me to face him. “I do.”
“I’m not done with your shoulder.”
“Sit down, baby. I need to talk to you.”
I took my seat again and waited for him to speak.
“Something I didn’t tell you about my dad is that he was murdered.”
I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. “Oh my god.”
“I watched it happen.”
I bit back tears. “When you were ten?”
He nodded. “And you’re only the second person in my life that knows that.”
“Your mom?”
“No, Connor.”
“Your mom doesn’t know?”
He shook his head. “Mom and Dad had gone to the little strip mall to pick up our Christmas gifts, and we were told to stay home. But I was a nosey little kid, so when Angelica wasn’t looking, I’d hopped on my bike and pedaled my ass up to the store to see if I could snatch a peek. I was dying to know if they were going to buy me this limited-edition graphic novel omnibus I’d been eyeing, and rather than just waiting to open it on Christmas day, I’d decided to do some recon. What I saw instead, was some guy beating the shit out of a woman and when my dad stepped in, this guy stabbed him.”
