Leo gives me a puzzled look. “My specialty?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Or maybe it’s your purpose in life – to make mine miserable. After all, that’s all you’ve ever done to me, even though I can’t, for the life of me, understand why. What have I ever done to you, huh, Leo? Why can’t you just leave me alone? Why can’t you just grow up?”
He doesn’t answer. He just looks at me with pained eyes.
Oh, so now he’s hurt. What? He can dish out the truth but he can’t take it? Such a kid. What is he going to do now? Cry? Punch me?
“Go ahead,” I tell him. “Hit me. God knows you’ve done worse. That’s another specialty of yours, isn’t it? Violence. You lash out at everyone and everything around you.”
Leo’s eyes narrow. “I’m not the one lashing out now, am I?”
I frown. Playing the victim again?
“You started this. You’ve been picking on me since the day you put that frog in my boot.”
“Wow.” Leo’s eyebrows arch. “Who’s acting like a kid, again?”
I shake my head. This is never going to end, is it? Just as I thought, this is pointless. And exhausting.
I’m a lawyer. I’m used to arguing and being provoked, but no one has ever worn me out like this.
I give up.
“I’m done with your games, Leonardo Ursini,” I tell him in a calm but serious tone after drawing a deep breath. “Do you hear me? I’m done.”
With that, I turn my back on him and march back to my car.
Chapter Four
Leo
How is it that I’m the childish one when Jodie was the one who was trying to use alcohol as an excuse for her actions, when she admitted to holding a twenty-year-old grudge over a plastic frog, when she was the one who stomped off with the same look of a little girl leaving the playground after being denied her turn on the swing?
I swallow those frustrations with gulps of whiskey before setting my empty glass down on the bar counter with a thud.
I should never have gone to see Jodie. I thought I owed it to her to tell her what I found out about Bart’s death even though I knew she was going to be upset. I even decided I’d tell her first instead of my father because, well, Bart was her father. But look what happened. She tried to get rid of me, and when she couldn’t, she decided to punish me by putting all the blame on me for what happened in her father’s library, and for practically everything else bad that has happened in her life, too.
Unbelievable.
Yes, I know I haven’t exactly been a good boy. I did play that prank on her. I did tease her a lot when we were kids. And I did fool her into thinking I was Antonio that one time when we were high school. But I didn’t do any of that to hurt her. I was just trying to get her attention.
And the sex last week? I didn’t mean to take advantage of her just for amusement. As hot-blooded and reckless as I can be, I would never force myself on a woman. I just couldn’t refuse her, that’s all. I was weak, not cruel.
And me teasing her just a while ago? I didn’t mean that, either. I was actually planning on congratulating her for winning her case. I was watching from the back and I couldn’t help but be impressed with her. But then I saw her with her doctor acting like more than just a lawyer and her client and I just lost it. That’s why I teased her. But that was just it – teasing. I didn’t mean to hurt her. Why can’t she see that?
Why does Jodie hate me, thinking I make her life miserable, when all I ever wanted was to make her mine?
The situation makes me, a grown man, want to laugh and cry at the same time. To clap in mocking applause for the one who’s playing this joke on me. To scream. To hit a wall. To hit my head on a wall. To explode. To disappear.
Instead, I ask the bartender for another glass of whiskey. This time, I drink it all in one gulp. I could probably drink a whole bottle right now.
“Whoa. Slow down, hotshot.” I hear a woman’s voice next to me. “The rest of us need to drink, too, you know.”
I glance at her. Brunette. Pierced nostril. Red lipstick. Nope. Never seen her before.
She slides into the empty seat next to me and leans forward to let me know she’s not wearing a bra as she takes my glass from my hand.
“Besides…” She wipes the bottom of the glass with a fingertip and then slips her whole finger inside her mouth to suck on it. “Something tells me what you need isn’t a strong drink.”