Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
My mother and sister shared the same interests, they were emotional, they liked to watch rom-coms, go shopping. And though they always invited me along with them, I always felt out of place.
“Your sister younger?” Kane asked.
I nodded. “Six years.” I thought of Maisie. Was it the distance between us in age that made us so different? “She’s got two kids,” I told him, thinking of my niece and nephew. When was the last time I saw them? One Christmas ago? Two? “Had the first when she was twenty, with a colossal asshole, the second after she got rid of the colossal asshole at twenty-three.”
My sister being a young mother, staying in the same town we grew up in, further solidified the relationship between my mother and her. The two of them talked to each other daily, and my mother was over there constantly, to see her grandchildren.
There was a stab in my heart, thinking of the family I’d put myself on the outside of.
“The guy she’s with now. He good to her?” Kane asked.
I toyed with the label of my beer, discomfort swimming through me. “From what I can gather. I’ve met him a couple of times. He doesn’t drink too much or give my sister black eyes, so that counts as a win.”
Anger blazed in Kane’s gaze. “Tell me someone dealt with him, and if they didn’t, I’ll make a phone call.”
He was serious. I didn’t know what a phone call would entail, but there was a violence simmering below the surface of Kane’s expression that I’d only seen when I’d spoken about Gerald. Whether or not his fury was because of his mother’s past or because he cared so much about me, I didn’t know. He wanted to avenge a sister he’d never met, he was a good man.
“No, I dealt with him.” I looked away from his intense scrutiny, taking in the bar’s decor.
When he cleared his throat, I looked back at him. The violence remained in his expression but the corner of his mouth was turned up. “You dealt with him?” he asked.
“You’re not the only one who can make phone calls to teach assholes lessons.” Though I didn’t make a whole lot of friends throughout my culinary career, I’d given and gained respect from people along the way. Some of the people were Italian. Old school Italian who’d promised if I needed any favors done, they would be there as a thank you for putting in the right words for them at the right restaurants. I hadn’t expected calling in those favors until seeing my sister’s black eye.
I hadn’t lost a wink of sleep over her ex-husband’s stay in the hospital with two black eyes of his own and broken bones, delivered in order to get the message across.
My sister, to that day, thought he was mugged.
Kane inclined his head. “Color me impressed. Your dad would be proud.”
That hit me square in the chest.
“Maybe.” I took a swig of my beer before chewing at my lip once again. My father had been fiercely protective of us both. He’d been larger than life in many ways, but I didn’t once remember him raising his voice nor condoning violence.
Kane leaned across the table then grabbed my face. “Your dad would be fuckin’ proud, Chef.”
I wanted to burst into tears. I didn’t. “He wouldn’t be proud to know I only talk to my mom and sister twice a year,” I whispered. “Christmas and birthdays. I don’t even call them on the anniversary of his death. I send flowers.”
I picked at the label on my beer bottle, unable to look at him while I admitted the shameful thing I’d carried around for years.
“They do something. Every year. And they invite me. Every year.” I shook my head in disgust at myself. “I just don’t have the courage to go. I don’t think I belong with them. It split us in two. My father dying. Them on one side, me on the other. And maybe a part of me likes it that way because I don’t have to be as close to them, so it won’t hurt as much if something happens to them.” I looked up at Kane. “Which is why you make me want to run. Because if something happened to you, it would destroy me.”
There it was. The admission of all admissions. The most I’d laid myself bare to a man ever.
Though I’d never been close to this fear of losing another man since my father, since I realized men I loved could be lost.
Kane didn’t break my stare. There was not an ounce of judgment for my abandonment of my family. “It is my singular duty on this planet to keep you intact, Chef,” he murmured. “It’s also my duty to make promises I can keep. I can’t promise nothing will happen to me. Even if I was an accountant, I could get hit by a cab crossing the street.” He picked up my fingers to kiss them. “But I vow I’ll do everything in my power to ensure I stay here with you.”