He shrugs. “I don’t see the point. Not until I have answers.”
“Thereisa point. He needs to know what you’re going through.”
Vince sighs, avoiding my gaze. He rubs his thigh with the heel of his palm.
“What if something happens while you’re at work? Like your leg gives out or something? He wouldn’t know what’s going on or how to help you.”
He doesn’t answer.
“He should know, Vince. He’dwantto know.”
Something flashes across his face too quick for me to read. Doubt, maybe. Vince seems to think Declan and Piper only care about him as long as he can do his job. But it’s so much more than that. I see it in the way they talk to him—it’s different from how they talk to Oliver or River. They care for Vince, even when he gives them so little to care about.
I wish he’d open up to people.
“He might offer you a chair or—”
Vince snaps his attention to me. “No.”
“Why?”
“I can’t be sitting on the job. I’m the fucking bouncer, Fletch. I gotta be ready to move.”
Ah. I see it now. Pride. To Vince, sitting feels like giving in. Admitting weakness.
It’s bullshit. Vince is anything but weak. He’s one of the strongest men I know, masking his pain the way he does.
But I don’t want to fight.
I touch his shoulder again. “I’m sorry. Forget I said that. I just think they need to know.”
He rubs his thigh again.
“Is it cramping?”
He nods.
Getting up, I pull a chair over to sit in front of him. “Is it just the thigh?”
“Everywhere.”
I lift one leg to drape over mine and start massaging his calf with slow, sure lines. “I’ll start here then. Tell me when I break through the pain.”
He inhales sharply, eyes fluttering shut for half a second before he catches himself. But as soon as I find the right pressure, he relaxes. “Right there.”
I work slowly, easily. Moving up his calf to his thigh.
“Georgie wants to get the Christmas decorations out this weekend,” I say, trying to distract him.
“Already?”
“What do you mean,already? We’re two weeks into December now. Georgie usually makes me get the lights upbeforeThanksgiving, so according to her, I’m behind schedule.”
He smiles a little.
“You can help. We usually make hot chocolate while we set it all up, then watch movies afterward.”
The invitation softens something in Vince; his head tilts just a little.
