“Let me be the judge of that.”
“You don’t get it.”
“Then tell me.”
“I’m not a good guy.”
“I think I should be the judge of that too.”
“I’m no father.”
“How do you know?You haven’t tried.But just to say, wewant for nothing.You don’t forget birthdays.You don’t—”
“That’s all bullshit,” he clipped.“He took that seriouslytoday.”
I was confused.
“What?”
“Liam.It was important, what he did today.You know why?”
“Because he’s a smart kid, and he soaks things up, andbecause of that, he understood how important today was to his Aunt Toni.”
“No.Because the only man in his life is his Uncle Tony andhe wanted to stand up for him.”
Oh boy.
“Darius—”
“You can’t deny it.It’s true.”
“He’s not the only man in his life.Dad is in his life.”Itried to take the heavy out of our conversation and quipped, “Lena’s revolvingdoor of boyfriends are in his life.”
“Your father is a good man.I looked into him, and Tony’s agood guy.”
Interesting.
I tipped my head to the side.“You looked into him?”
“He’s in your life, Liam’s, so yeah.I looked into him.”
“So he’s not a secret agent?”
Darius’s brows drew together.“What?”
I flipped out a hand.“Toni.She freaked out before theceremony, worried she was getting into aTrue Liessituation.”
“Was heading into the church, saw her Julia Robertsimpression,” he murmured.“Wondered what that was about.”
“That’s what it was about.”
“She’s a sneaky one, baby.She’s crazier than you.Crazierthan even Lena.She just knows how to hide it.”
I started laughing, because I already knew this.He hadn’tseen her version of incognito at his aunt’s bar.
His fingers still at my hips dug in.“This is fucked up,what we’re doing.”
“But it works,” I asserted.
