“You could be my mommy.”
“Oh, well . . .” I say, realizing what I just walked into. “I’m not your daddy’s girlfriend. I’m your Uncle Dom’s. So I could be your aunt, but not your mommy. Although, any woman that gets to spend time with you is a lucky ducky.”
He grins at me, his eyes sparkling like Dom’s. “You make me happy.”
“You make me happy too, little guy.” I slow him down until his miniature cowboy boots drag the dirt. “I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“Instead of spending the day here, why don’t we go to my house?”
“Could we?” he asks, jumping off the swing.
“Absolutely. Let me check with your daddy first.”
“I could’ve brought him home,” I tell Nate as he comes through the door. “It would’ve been no big deal.”
“I’d hate for you to have to get out and lug him around, especially if he’s asleep.”
“He passed out a few hours ago.” I tuck my legs under me on the sofa and watch Nate take in my living room. “I think I wore him out. We played at your apartment, then I took him down to Marcone Park and fed the ducks and got an ice cream, then we watched a movie.”
“All in one day? Shit, Priss. He won’t want to leave.”
Laughing, I pick up my glass of hot tea. “It was fun. When Dom called and told me he had to go do an emergency HVAC job, I tried to get Ryder to take a bath. But he kind of just used my tub as a swimming pool.”
“Sounds about right.”
The lamps around the room cast a soft light on Nate’s features. It mutes the general sternness he projects and makes me wonder how he would’ve ended up had he not had the upbringing he did.
He’s handsome. Not quite as good-looking as Dom, but almost. They’re both intelligent and hard workers. I can see them both sitting in suits at a business meeting or on the arm of a woman at one of the fancy dinners my parents attend regularly. The thought makes me smile.
“So,” Nate sa
ys, clearing his throat, “Dom told me you and one of your brothers had a falling out.”
“Yeah.” My heart tumbles as Graham is brought up. He hasn’t called me and I haven’t called him. I pick up my phone at least twice a day and almost give in and reach out and then I remember—I have nothing to apologize for. I put the phone back down.
I hate this between us. It’s something I can’t shake. Even though I do believe, without a doubt, he means well, I can’t act like this is okay because it’s not. Graham will never respect me if I let him walk all over me.
“If it’s my fault . . .”
“It’s not your fault,” I insist. “It’s . . . it’s the joining of a bunch of different things. Family growing pains, I guess. I don’t know.”
“I can tell it bothers you.”
“Yeah,” I rasp. “My family is really close. Like you and Dominic but there are six of us. I’ve gone this long without talking to one of them lots of times, but never because we’re actually mad.”
“Can I help somehow?”
I shake my head, putting my tea back on the table. “No. It’ll work out.”
He looks away and lets out a breath. “Did they not like Dom?”
I know what he’s implying, questioning, and I feel terrible that such a thing would cross his mind. “Ford and Lincoln did like him, actually. You know Sienna loves him. I mean, what’s not to love?”
“Lots of things,” he chuckles. “But he’s a good guy. I know you know that.”
“I do.”