“Angel, it’s time to get changed so we can go to dinner,” Levi told me.
“Okay, Daddy,” I responded, letting out a huff of disappointment. This was the end of my time to let go. The end of my time with him.
Levi led me to where he’d carefully folded the spare clothes he’d loaned me earlier. “Do you want to leave those on? No one will know but us.”
“I can’t keep these clothes,” I protested. Not only were they John’s, but I couldn’t risk Mama finding them when she cleaned my room. How could I explain underwear that looked like oversized versions of the dungarees she bought me when I was a little boy? Yeah. No thanks.
“If you like them, they’re yours,” John called out from where he was busy packing up the props we’d used today. “Not like I can resell the underwear, so they’d just wind up in the garbage.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. They were cute, and I liked the way they made my butt look. “Can I think about it?”
“Take as much time as you need,” Levi assured me. “How about if you wear them to dinner, just to see how it feels knowing you’re not being yanked out of little time?”
“I’d like that.” And I loved how he seemed to read me so well. “Thank you.”
Levi gathered the sweatpants and kneeled in front of me, once again helping dress me. Taking care of me. It felt nice.
“Would you like to ride to dinner with me or with John?” Levi asked. John and Denny were already hauling the totes they wouldn’t need for the rest of the shoot down to John’s truck, but I got the impression they were trying to give us some private time, too.
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, tracing over it with my tongue. For the first time, my gut started twisting with anxiety. Playing like this with Levi had been a job so far. If I took his hand and followed him to his car, I knew myself well enough to know I’d start wishing for more than just tonight and I wasn’t sure he wanted that.
“You’re thinking too hard,” he whispered as he tucked my hair behind my ear. He kissed the skin there and I almost turned on him, telling him to either kiss me like he meant it or stop, because I couldn’t take much more of his teasing. “It’s just dinner, Angel. You don’t need to think about anything beyond that. One step at a time.”
“But what if I want more than just dinner?” I asked, not sure where in the heck that had come from. My hands shook and I couldn’t look at him after the words were out.
“We can talk about that after dinner,” he promised me. “If you’d like, we can go back to my place to talk.” I opened my mouth to protest, because that sounded an awful lot like a booty call, but Levi pressed a finger to my lips to silence me. “Don’t worry, Angel. I haven’t forgotten your limits. I only thought it’d be easier to talk in private and didn’t want to invite myself to your place.”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. It would be embarrassing enough to have him pull up in front of my childhood home; I couldn’t imagine admitting that I still lived with Mama because I couldn’t remember to do the simplest tasks for myself sometimes.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I told him. Levi had many opportunities to push my limits, but so far he’d been frustratingly respectful. I was starting to think I mightwanthim to push me. At least a little. “I’m sorry if I’m a bit of a headcase. I do this a lot where I try to run through every possible scenario in my mind, and I always get tripped up on the one that worries me the most.”
Levi laughed, a rich, throaty sound unlike the half-hearted chuckles I’d heard from him until now. “I’d already figured out that much, but thank you for being so forthcoming with me.” He opened the door to the stairs and ushered me through, quickly catching up to place his hand at the small of my back again. “Can I ask you a question?”
“You just did,” I teased. Levi swatted my backside, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to tell me it’d been intentional. And damn if that wasn’t another thing I hadn’t realized I’d like. “Sorry, go ahead.”
Levi pushed a button on his key fob and the lights on a compact hybrid car flashed. He opened the passenger’s side door, leaning in once I was seated. He pulled the belt across my chest and buckled it, kissing the tip of my nose as he backed out. It wasn’t until he was settled behind the wheel and pulling into traffic that he finally shared what was on his mind. “I don’t want you to try to figure out the answer you think I want, just say the first thing that comes to your mind.”
“Okay.” I scraped a hand through my hair, twisting my fingers around the ends and tugging. A lump formed in my throat and I worried I wouldn’t be able to get anything out once he finally asked his question.
“Relax.” Levi took my hand, sliding his thumb back and forth across the skin. “When you were playing today, how was your mind?”
“Quiet,” I responded without hesitation. “It was nice to not think about all the different ways I could screw up for a change. I do that a lot. Frankie says I’m my own worst enemy, that I worry so much about doing something wrong that I don’t pay attention to doing things the right way.”
“Who’s Frankie?” The slight growl in the back of Levi’s throat both made me nervous and thrilled a bit. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted from him, but it was new to have someone who seemed almost jealous of someone else being an important part of my life. I debated teasing him a bit as a way of testing the waters because I’d rather know as soon as possible if he was some possessive jerk, but I couldn’t be that mean to him when he’d been nothing but kind to me.
“Frankie’s my oldest brother,” I explained, smiling when Levi’s shoulders sagged. “There are five of us, just so you know. Frankie, then Freddie, Tony and Enzo are the twins, then there’s me. We all work at the restaurant our Nonno Marino opened, and Frankie’s in charge.”
“Five boys, huh? Your parents must’ve had their hands full.” Levi let out a low whistle.
“Mama swears she wouldn’t have it any other way,” I responded. Mama got upset when people assumed she felt like she’d missed out on something by not having any girls. She didn’t, because she’d never believed in the gender roles a lot of families in our community held to. According to her, boys were just as capable of cooking, cleaning, sewing, and anything else as girls were. “And now she spoils the heck out of Sophia, my niece. She’s Freddie’s little girl.”
“Are any of your other brothers married?” Levi asked, signaling before merging into the left lane. I figured out quickly that we were heading to the burger joint John was obsessed with.Finally, an end to the healthy food.
“None of them are right now, actually,” I clarified. “Freddie was, but she was a witch who took off on them. He was raising Sophia alone until Peter moved in. Now, they’re together and looking for houses, so I wouldn’t be shocked if they get married at some point. And Frankie’s engaged to Calvin. Tony probably won’t ever settle down with anyone, and who knows what the deal is with Enzo. And now I’m rambling. I do that, too, sometimes. See, this is what happens. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say, so I just babble. You shouldn’t have told me to say the first thing that came to mind because I could go on forever.”
“And I’d listen to every word,” he said softly, lifting my hand to kiss my fingers. He’d done that a few times today. What did it say that I liked that? “So, two of your brothers are gay—”
“No, Freddie’s bisexual,” I corrected him because I’d heard him do the same to Mama repeatedly. “But yeah, Frankie’s gay.”
