“I’m usually home by four. I can tend to the dogs then. On the days when I might be later, I’ll let you know.”
“Good.” So far, he loved her plans. “Anything else?”
Another bite of her plump lip, then she asked, “Will you tell me about your childhood, about growing up as an only kid, how and when you decided to move here, stuff like that?”
Before he thought better of it, he groaned. He hated talking about his past. Overall, his method of dealing with it had been to pretend it never existed.
Her small, cool hand touched his shoulder. “Hey, no biggie. I shouldn’t have pried.”
He covered her hand with his own. “No, I shouldn’t have been a dramatic ass. It’s not a secret, just something I try to ignore. If you won’t be too bored, I’ll give you the broad strokes.”
“Nothing about you could ever bore me.”
The way she said that inspired hope that she, too, was invested. “Is that so?”
“You’ve fascinated me since the first day I moved here and saw you cutting grass. I’d never seen anyone look so good getting sweaty.”
His childhood was a bramble of disappointments and determination, yet still he smiled. “You like the hot and overworked look, is that it?”
“On you, I like every look.” She peered over his body, from his shoulders to his abdomen, down to his toes and up his legs, then lingered. “This look, in a bed and naked, is my favorite so far.”
“You’re welcome to the view whenever you want.”
Her lips lifted into a grin. “So at any moment, I could command you to strip?”
“As long as you strip with me.”
They grinned together, until she traced his mouth. “Ford, is this your way of avoiding those broad strokes?”
Another groan tried to break free, but he swallowed it back. “Of course not.”Liar. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Tell me why you decided to leave your home,” she said, encouraging him.
“It was never a home. Just a house that fell apart a little more each year.” His own house was well maintained, and it looked as nice as he could make it, but in many ways, it didn’t yet feel like a home, either. “For as long as I can remember, Mom and Dad were both nasty drunks.” That was broad enough that she could probably guess the rest, but he filled in some details anyway. “From weekend binges to midweek meltdowns and missed work. Good employment turned to temp work. I’m not sure why they stayed married, because they spent more time fighting than anything else.”
Putting her head on his shoulder, Skye whispered, “That sounds awful.”
It was, in more ways than she could realize. “We were the joke of the neighborhood. It was nothing to see cop cars at our house because Mom would call on Dad, or vice versa, whenever they really got piss-faced, and that happened often enough. I was probably around ten or so when I decided I’d be different.” Young and proud, but unsure how to navigate the ridicule he’d faced on a daily basis.
“I can’t even imagine how hard that had to be for a kid.”
“At the time, yeah, I hated my life, and I hated them. Looking back, I think that’s where I learned the gift of gab. At least, it’s served me well as a pharmaceutical rep.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Kids love to poke fun. Not to be cruel or to bully, not always anyway. Show me a teenager and I’ll show you a moody kid trying to figure out his life. Everyone has their own stuff to deal with. Joking about yourself and your friends helps. So my group would often point out the drunken antics of my folks.” Heconsidered the past for a quiet moment. “It was humiliating, but it also taught me how to deal with stuff. They’d poke fun and I’d join in. Like, someone would say how my dad was in the road in his boxers, stumbling around. I’d tell them it was even worse when he was drunk—because everyone already knew he was hammered.”
A smile, small and sad, touched her mouth. “You turned the joke in your favor.”
“It had people laughing with me instead of at me.”
“I doubt they ever laughed at you.”
Putting his head back, he closed his eyes. “In fifth grade, I failed a test, so the teacher called my mom for a conference.” Shame burned him again, making the words catch in his throat. “She showed up at the school completely tanked. Threatened the teacher and the principal. Cops were called—nothing new for the Caruso family—and Mom spent the day in the local jail.” He huffed a short laugh devoid of humor. “Dad was pissed beyond reason. He trashed the house and threatened to . . .” No, he wouldn’t share the idiotic threats of the man who’d fathered him. Rubbing his face, he let that memory go and lightened the mood. “Anyway, it taught me what I didn’t want to be, you know?”
She nodded, her expression a little devastated.
Ford hauled her close so that she rested against his chest. Against his heart. “Growing up wasn’t fun, but it toughened me up, and I learned to navigate. I never failed another test, that’s for sure. Straight As for me. Soon as I had enough credits to graduate, I got my diploma, grabbed what I could from home, and took off.”
