Alpha Male Romance(76)

He nodded, scooping his eggs onto his plate. “It was one of the things Father O'Toole used to convince me to enlist. A chance to get out of Philadelphia.” He went to the table and sat down.

After a moment's hesitation, I carried my plate over and sat across from him. “That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here too. A chance to get out of Texas.”

We ate in silence for a couple of minutes, the tension between us easing a bit. I felt a rush of relief. I didn't want things to be weird, no matter what I ended up doing later on.

“Won't your parents want you to come back to San Antonio?”

I got up to pour myself a cup of coffee. “Probably.” He didn't ask me to elaborate, but as I came back to my seat, I found myself adding, “They were another reason I wanted to leave.”

He looked up from his plate and I could see the question on his face.

I took a sip of my coffee, debating how much to share. “We were pretty much a normal family before my brother...died.” The word still made my heart twist.

To my surprise, X reached out and put his hand over mine. It was an innocent gesture, but electricity immediately raced through me.

“You don't have to tell me anything,” he said.

I took a slow breath, and carefully extricated my hand from under his, using my need for another drink of coffee as a silent excuse. “It's okay. I don't mind you knowing.”

And that was the truth. It didn't bother me having him know things about my family that very few other people knew.

“My parents didn't cope with what happened to Logan,” I said. I wrapped my hands around my mug and absorbed the heat. “I think they still haven't, actually. It was like my family imploded that day.” The words were coming easier than I thought they would. “My mom tried to pretend that it never happened, that Logan had died overseas. I guess, in a way, that was true, but she never faced the fact that he killed himself. Or that I found him.” I looked down at my coffee. “They wouldn't talk about it. Wouldn't let me talk about it.”

X muttered a curse under his breath.

“Dad started drinking and didn't stop. And Mom kept pretending that things were fine until she couldn't deny it any longer. She divorced him, but still tried to take care of him.” I gave a bitter chuckle. “Or, rather, she had me take care of him. Whenever she tried, they'd get into a fight, and I ended up having to smooth things over. So Mom just started calling me whenever she was worried about Dad.”

“How old were you when they got divorced?” X asked.

“Officially? Nineteen. But Mom moved out less than a year after Logan...” I let the sentence trail off.

“Damn, Nori. You were just a kid. You shouldn't have had to deal with that.”

I raised my head, unable to stop the little burst of gratification at how indignant X looked on my behalf. “I wasn't that young, but thank you.” I put down my coffee. “Anyway, they never stopped playing me off each other. Mom calling for me to check up on Dad. Me going to the apartment to find him passed out, making sure he didn't accidentally choke in his sleep or set the place on fire. Him being pissed that I hadn't just left him alone. Him calling Mom to complain.” I made a circular motion with my finger. “One long, never-ending cycle. The only way I could get out of it without them blaming each other was to leave. Force them to have to deal with each other because I wasn't there to do it for them.”

“I'll bet they were pissed.”

I gave him a half smile. “You have no idea.” I took a bite of my toast. After I swallowed, I took my turn to ask about him. “What about you? How'd you end up with Father O'Toole?”

A shadow crossed X's face, and I was immediately sorry I asked. I opened my mouth to tell him that he didn't have to share, but he shook his head.

X looked down at his plate. “My father was a bastard who beat on my mom and my sister and me.”

I put down the last bite of toast. I wasn't hungry anymore.

“He left when I was thirteen. Only good thing he ever did.” He pushed some hair out of his face. “My mom's job couldn't even keep a roof over our heads, so I started running drugs for a local dealer. Short version is, I got caught and turned on him to get a shorter sentence. When I got out of juvie, he had some of his thugs jump me. They beat the shit out of me.” He grew quiet, a faraway look in his eyes that told me he wasn't thinking about the here and now. “Father O'Toole came out and chased them off. Saved my life. He nursed me back to health, made me go back to school.”

“He's an amazing man,” I said.

X nodded and glanced up at me. “He's the best person I know.” A light flickered in his eyes and he smiled. “Well, him and you.”