“Nothing.”
I squinted at him. “You’re a shit liar. Anyone ever tell you that?”
His lips twisted. “You are well,duci?”
My shoulders slumped as I allowed the cushions to take more of my weight. “Why do you ask? You heard me answer it before.”
“Did your brothers say anything to hurt you?”
“They’re dicks. I take every word from their mouths with a pinch of salt.” I sniffed. “And I’ve been better but I’ll be fine.”
He pressed his hand to one of the cushions just so he could crush it. “You want me here?”
“Um, yeah.” My brow puckered. “What do you need me to do, Stan? Glue my hand to yours to convince you?”
A soft laugh fell from his lips, and I realized some inner tension had abated because he looked a lot lighter.
“You thought my brothers said something to turn me against you,” I said flatly.
Downstairs, the loud slam of a door echoed and raised voices came next.
It was a fitting soundtrack for this conversation.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you listened to what they said and had… second thoughts.”
“What would you do if I did?”
Another smile curved his lips. It was, I recognized, the most lethal smile I’d ever encountered. “I’m a patient man,liunissa.”
“Don’t look at me that way and say those types of things when we can’t do anything to resolve them.”
That earned me a slow blink. “I’ll do better in the future.”
“Good.”
Because my ma was a magician in the kitchen, she bustled upstairs a few minutes later. I’d never understand how she could whip up a feast with no warning.
Still, I didn’t need food. Just her presence.
Lauren was so kind, and recuperating in their home had given me a breather from the intensity of my family, but nothing beat your mom taking control of everything when you were sick.
Once she plunked a tray on my dresser, I let her coddle me as she corrected the already corrected pillows Neev had stacked behind me. She righted the blankets,just so, tucked me in like I was a kid again, and then set a sandwich on my nightstand with a steaming hot chocolate complete with sticky Irish marshmallows.
“Thank you, Ma,” I rasped when, once finished mother-henning me, she bussed my cheek with a kiss.
“You should have come home, Kitty,” she chided, words stern, but the quiver to her lips gave her away. “Or, at the very least, let me come to you.”
“This will never happen again, ma’am, but I will always make sure you’re updated about Kitty’s well-being,” Stan inserted with the suaveness of James Bond.
Which made no sense because, surely, he’d be a Bond villain…
“I appreciate that, Custanzu.” She graced us both with the patented gimlet stare that, historically, never ended well for me. “Despite your sister’s proclamation, I’ll believe what you tell me…”
“I met him in the hospital twice, Ma. One time, he was, well, incapacitated in the ER and the other, he was unconscious in the ICU.
“I checked in with him after my vacation was over and said a handful of words. That’s literally it! Then, we met in the airport lounge,by chance, right before our flight to C-C?—”
“Key West,” Stan interrupted with the smoothness of hot fudge—oooh, boy, I wanted some of that.
