My Funny Valentine (Jasper Falls 5)

There was no reason to answer.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Finn laughed again. “I never saw this coming.” He sipped his own beer and then sobered. “It’s sad about her dad.”

“Is it?” Giovanni challenged. He didn’t know Ward the way others did. But he was getting to know Erin, and that put him on her side.

Finn sighed and leaned against the shelves, his arms crossing at his chest. “There were bruises. I knew something wasn’t right, but she always made excuses. I was a kid. She never confided in me about that stuff, but I knew she hated being home. We used to fight a lot because she didn’t like hanging out with my family and we couldn’t go to her house. She hated when I started working at the lumberyard.”

“Why did that matter?”

“Because it meant I was never gonna leave Jasper Falls and I was her escape plan. She used to fantasize about us running away together.”

Giovanni hated the thought of her sharing any fantasies with someone else. “God forbid any of us choose not to work in the family business.”

“Hey, that lumberyard made my family and yours. If you don’t want to work there, fine, but I made the right choice by staying. Erin just wanted to leave. She didn’t want me. In the end, we weren’t even…” He shook his head. “She used to hate being touched.”

“I know.” He held his cousin’s stare, making it clear that he was in this for more than a blizzard fling.

“But she also cheated on me a lot, so go figure.”

“It’s because you were too attentive. You cared about her. And you protect the people you care about. If Ward was hitting her and you asked questions whenever you saw a bruise, questions she didn’t want to answer, it makes sense that she’d stop taking her clothes off around you.”

“But she’d strip for other guys?”

Giovanni shrugged. “Didn’t you ever have casual sex? You’re not looking for red flags any more than you’re looking for commitment. Those guys didn’t see her. They just used her.”

He could tell by the way Finn looked away that this was something he’d never discussed, something that had once been a great source of pain and confusion for him.

“If it helps,” he told Finn. “I don’t think her behavior had anything to do with you. You’re a good guy, Finn. And if I know Erin, I don’t think she ever enjoyed hurting you. She was too busy dealing with her own pain to stop it from spreading to you.”

“Maybe.”

When he left his cousin’s house his mind was made up. Things started to make sense. Erin denied any sort of sexual abuse when he’d asked—thank God for that—but he couldn’t imagine how much other abuse she might have suffered. Mental, physical… No wonder she always seemed so unhappy.

There was one thing he couldn’t figure out. If her life at home had been so miserable, why had she stayed?

CHAPTER 14

“Here we are again. Same old argument, same old excuses. When are you going to grow up, Giovanni?” His father’s booming voice ricocheted off the kitchen walls.

“It takes time. I’m building a brand.”

Paulie threw up his hands. “You need money. Sometimes, people have to choose practicality over passion.”

“I’m not you!” Giovanni snapped. “Mom, tell him to get off me about the damn lumberyard.”

But this time his mother kept quiet.

“You could have taken over the bar, but you didn’t want that,” his dad continued. “You could have gone to college and done something with yourself.”

“I am doing something with myself!”

“Where do you live? You’re staying in a truck stop motel and living out of the trunk of your car!”

“Why would I pay rent for an apartment when I’m on the road?”

His father scoffed. “You’re here because you ran out of money. You think we don’t see what you’re doing? And I know you stole the manicotti the other night.”

“Nona gave it to me! Tell him I didn’t steal it, Nona.”

His grandmother turned from the stove where she fried chicken cutlets and pinched Giovanni’s cheek hard. She kissed his forehead, most likely leaving a smear of red lipstick. “I’ll cook’a whatever you want’a.”

He arched a brow at his dad and Paulie rolled his eyes. “Say something, Colleen.”

“I think your father’s right, Giovanni. You need a steady income. You have to start thinking about your future.”

He groaned, forking his fingers through his hair. They’ve had this same damn argument a hundred times. “I am thinking about my future. Every move I make has to do with what’s best for my future.”

“You know, your sister put in an application for a job at the new hotel. They’re looking for managers.”

“I’m not working at a hotel. And Mariella should know better than to think they’d hire her.”

His mother scowled. “Why the hell wouldn’t they hire her? She’d be a great manager.”