Pleasant shivers run down my spine at hearing him say my real name. The light turns green and the car speeds up again.
“I couldn’t tell you how I really met Luke. Then you’d have found out about Dave and his friend, who held me while Dave punched me, and I didn’t want you to do the exact thing that you ended up doing.”
“Dammit, Thea!” He hits the steering wheel. “You expect me to find out that the bastard was too cowardly to fight me so he targeted and cornered my girl, and then not make sure that he was shitting his own teeth for weeks? I absolutely had to go fight him and anyone else who was involved.” He stops at a red light. “I’d do it again too.”
Feeling bold and high off of his words, I quickly unbuckle my seat belt and kneel on the seat, put my hand on his strong jaw, and kiss him deeply and passionately, my heart beating erratically in my chest, threatening to explode.
&n
bsp; He kisses me back, his hands feeling right at home on my waist. But all too soon I’m pulling away and sitting back in my seat, a stupid smile on my face as I buckle up again, and Aiden takes off when the light turns green.
“Just try not to get into any more fights on my behalf, okay?”
“I make no promises,” Aiden says.
I huff out loud, but deep down, his words thrill me, and I can’t fight the smile tugging at my lips.
At Sweetie’s we find a booth in the back for some privacy and sit down. Only Aiden doesn’t have an ice-cream cone or cup in his hands, which, according to Noah, is a big no-no. Apparently, you can never say no to ice cream, even in highly tense situations, using the cones he’s holding in each hand as evidence. I offer Aiden some of mine, but he shakes his head.
The booth is a little tight but we all fit. The red seat padding is well worn, with a few random patches covering older tears, but it’s still comfortable. Considering it’s winter, Sweetie’s is pretty busy, and the loud chatter around us fills in the silence as we eat our ice cream.
Julian’s the first to spot Luke, but he doesn’t call out to him. Annalisa’s brother looks a little worse for wear, sporting a black eye and a gash in his lip, his clothing covering any other injuries he might have. He heads straight over to us in a no-nonsense kind of way, managing to seem confident even though it looks like he’s limping. He grabs a chair from an empty table and sits at the end of our table instead of in the booth with us. Aiden’s the closest to him on one side, and at the other end of the booth closest to Luke is Chase, with Annalisa sitting directly in the middle of the booth, right across from her brother.
“Hi,” Luke says, presumably to all of us, but never once looking away from his sister.
Something akin to sympathy crosses Annalisa’s face, but it’s gone almost as fast as it was there. She crosses her arms and glares into the distance.
“We’re here. Tell us what you know.” Aiden cuts right to the point.
Luke looks longingly at Annalisa for a couple of seconds before tearing his gaze from her and looking at Aiden.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed the shiner I’m sporting?” Luke says with a noncommittal gesture at his face.
“I’m guessing it happened last night,” Aiden states more than asks.
“Afternoon, actually. But you should’ve seen the other guy.” Luke’s voice squeaks in what approaches a laugh.
“Around the same time Greg’s injuries also occurred?” Julian asks.
Aiden leans over the table. “Cut the bullshit, Luke. Why are we here?”
Luke sighs and slumps back in his chair. “As you all know, I’m clean now. I’m trying to get my life back together, but it’s hard. The friendships I’ve burned, opportunities I’ve ruined, relationships I threw away …” He looks at Annalisa, who looks away quickly, as if embarrassed to have been caught looking back at him.
He clears his throat. “I just—I want things to go back to the way they were before I got messed up with heroin, the way it should’ve been if I’d avoided falling in with the wrong crowd.”
Annalisa fidgets in her seat, no doubt trying to keep the promise she made before we left—that she wouldn’t explode on her brother. She’s one of the most stubborn and headstrong people I know. She’s determined to remain mad at her brother, so his emotional confession is probably driving her crazy. Julian grabs her hand and she noticeably calms down.
“But my life hasn’t been back on track like I want it to be,” Luke solemnly continues. “I slipped up. As part of my recovery, I committed to staying sober. No drugs, no prescription medication, and no alcohol. But yesterday, I was just sitting in my self-loathing, thinking of all the ways I fucked my life up, all the steps I could’ve taken to avoid Mom’s death, to avoid losing my sister, the only person who matters in my life right now …” He takes a deep breath. “I went to one of my old bars, had a couple of drinks—”
Luke shifts in his seat. “A couple of drinks in, some of my old ‘buddies’ told me that our old dealer was out of jail, thinking that I’d want to pick up some heroin. But the thought of that dealer had the opposite effect. I didn’t want any part of it, I didn’t want anything to do with him. In fact, I hated him. He got me hooked on the stuff; he ruined my life. He was the little devil on my shoulder, encouraging me to choose the drug over my family, over everything.”
I’m holding my breath. Beside me, Aiden tenses. Is he following my train of thought?
Luke runs his hand through his hair and winces, holding his arm close to his chest. “I didn’t really think—I knew I had to go confront him. I left the bar and walked around his old neighborhood, not really thinking about anything except my hatred of him.”
Oh God, please don’t say what I think you’re going to say. A large and comforting hand lands on my thigh, and it reminds me to breathe. I put my hand on top of Aiden’s without looking at him, entwining my fingers in the spaces between his.
“Eventually, I found him; he was already a little doped up. He smiled and said he’d known it would only be a matter of time until one of his most faithful customers sought him out. I didn’t think, I was just so drunk and angry, I threw a punch. We fought, and I don’t really remember what happened after that.”