“I don’t need a necklace, like I said, but I want you to know how serious I am. This? I can’t ever take it off. Can’t forget what my Ma told me because it’s on me forever, and won’t forget to try harder to be the man you deserve, the man our child deserves. It’s inked for good, like your name on my heart.”
I burst into tears.
And then I gave him the best blowjob of his life.
Dare
“I have to tell you something,” Tommy said to me.
He’d popped by and was sitting at the island on a stool with me. We were having a beer. Angel was having a bubble bath.
“What?”
“I met with Alessandro Romero in Costa Rica.”
Tommy and Tia had spent five days there; they’d just gotten back that day.
“You what?”
“He showed up. Fuck, thought that was it for me. Guess if my wife’s high school friend could find us there, it’s not so far-fetched that Romero could do the same.”
My eyes widened.
Tommy shuddered in memory.
“He wanted to talk about your situation. He agreed to Angel being allowed to see Holly.”
“What?”
“He’s willing to take steps to make it all look good.”
He didn’t have to elaborate. I knew what that meant. Alessandro Romero was not giving her up. And he was willing to marry Holly to keep us from pushing our suit regarding her, meaning it’d connect our families so that no one would look sideways at us for allowing it. It was an old-school way of thinking; truces were done via marriage as far back as time went.
He’d gone to my brother knowing that my brother would be the likeliest to be able to reason with me and probably also did it knowing that my brother had a similar reputation to his. Maybe that was why he figured he could talk to Tommy.
I wasn’t happy. But, it did solve some problems. Or it would, if we could see that she was willing. Was she? Or was she a broken little doll? This guy was going to great lengths to try to not be our enemy for some reason.
***
I stopped by Tessa’s house. It was good she was home. She seemed better when I sat down to talk to her.
“You wanna talk?”
“About what happened to me? No. I’m glad it’s over.”
“Can you at least tell me about Holly?”
“She’s young. Sweet. You can’t not like her. She radiates with beauty.”
“You saw them interact”
“Her and Alessandro? Yeah, briefly.”
“What’s he like with her?” I took a sip of the coffee she’d made me.
“He watches her, tracks her every move. He didn’t touch her, barely spoke to her, but the way he looks at her? He looks at her the way Tommy looks at Tia.”
I winced. I was afraid of that.