The Promise(49)
“Tame doesn’t sound fun,” Keira noted. Cal sighed audibly and I smiled, but only so I wouldn’t laugh.
Cal had his hands full with this one and I thought that was hilarious.
“It’s not tame tame, it’s the good kind of tame,” I explained. She looked confused, so I went on. “I’m just sayin’, listen to Cal. You might not get it ’cause you’re young, but you’ll learn. And he’s tryin’ to make sure when you learn, it isn’t the hard way.”
“Right,” Keira whispered, eyeing me, eyeing Cal, and sucking my womanly wisdom in like a sponge.
“So,” Kate said, and I looked to her. “It’s like Joe bein’ the Lone Wolf, and Mawdy and us gettin’ in there, and he’s still hot and cool, but he’s got us.”
“Something like that,” I replied, smiling back at her.
“The Lone Wolf?” Benny asked.
“Shut it,” Cal growled.
I giggled again.
“What are we talking about?” Theresa asked, and I looked over the back of the couch to see her and Violet joining us.
“Something we’re not talkin’ about anymore,” Cal answered.
I gave Vi a big smile as Kate exited the couch to go sit on the floor with her sister so Theresa could sit in the corner. Violet scrunched next to me.
The minute she did, she grabbed my hand and held on.
I rested our hands on my thigh and held on tighter.
“I made cannoli and Benny bought enough donuts for an army. Anyone in the mood for something sweet?” Theresa asked.
“Me!” Keira cried.
“Totally!” Kate exclaimed, already getting back to her feet.
Theresa, barely just sitting down, got back up. “Let’s go make coffee and get something sweet.”
“I could use some coffee and somethin’ sweet,” Vinnie Senior muttered, hefting himself out of the recliner and following them.
“Ben, a word,” Cal said.
I felt Benny tense against me. I looked at him to see he was giving a hard look to his cousin. Then he looked to me and that look softened.
“Be back, cara,” he said quietly.
“Right,” I replied.
He carefully shifted from beside me and got to his feet.
The men left and I looked to Vi.
“Do you know what that’s about?” I asked.
Violet was looking over the couch, watching the men depart, but at my question, her eyes came to me. “Joe obviously has something on his mind. Unfortunately, he hasn’t shared with me what it is.”
I looked over the couch and saw that whatever it was took them out to the front stoop. In other words, where no one could listen in.
I turned my gaze back to Violet. “Is everything cool?”
She nodded. “Police found the carnage Hart left in his lake house. He shot you. Both Joe and Benny’s guns were registered. The cops were in the know we’d been kidnapped, and they knew all about Hart and his obsession with me. So, to end, they didn’t press charges against Joe for blowin’ a hole in his head. And, obviously you know, the same with Benny for shooting him in the stomach.”
I knew all that. Sal had explained it to me in the hospital.
So I clarified, “No, what I mean is, you, the girls, the drama.” I leaned closer. “They’re beautiful, Vi,” I said softly. “So sweet. Amazing. But they seem—”
She gave my hand a squeeze. “They lost their dad, their uncle, and almost me and Joe to Daniel Hart. They latch on to family, having lost all that. Joe and I are keepin’ an eye on it, but I reckon it’s better they latch on to love rather than acting out.”
“You’d be right about that,” I replied.
She tipped her head to the side as she lifted her eyebrows up. “You and Benny?”
“Long story,” I muttered, and she grinned.
“You two look good together.”
I caught her eyes direct. “I looked good together with his brother too.”
She held my gaze for long seconds before she asked cautiously, “Do you like him?”
“He’s the commissioner of the local Little League.”
Her lips twitched and she murmured, “You like him.”
“He’s also my dead boyfriend’s brother,” I noted for the fucking gazillionth time in three days.
She assessed my face and remarked, “I’m sensing you don’t wanna talk about this.”
“Since Ben made it clear what he was thinking about this, it’s pretty much the only thing I think about, we talk about, and I talk about with other people. So yeah, I could use a break.”
Violet nodded. “Right. So you ever need to talk it through with someone who’ll just listen, or you ever need to talk anything through with someone who’ll just listen, or you ever just want to shoot the breeze, you call me. Okay?”