“I’d tell you to stay, but it’s a dump.” I kissed her forehead and cheeks as I cleaned her up with my t-shirt and helped her get dressed.
“How long are you planning on staying in San Francisco?”
“Not long. I should hit the road right away, but I’m trying to hash things out with my boy. Maybe, I’ll knock some sense into his thick skull and convince him to come home with me.”
“Rex.” She mocked.
“Yeah, Rex. What’s so funny?”
“That can’t be his real name. Remember how you gave me a lecture about the Italian alphabet? I’ve been sharpening my Italian ever since, and I know x isn’t so Italian.”
I snorted. “His mother gave him a fucked up name just to piss me off, so since he was three, I’ve always called him Rex. It was his dog’s name when he was little, and he always said that would be his road name when he grew up.” My jaws clenched. “Except the fucker doesn’t wanna patch in. He wants nothing to do with me or the club or Texas.”
“Hey,” she folded her arms around my waist, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
She held on to my cut and smiled at me. “You said he was good at literature and writing, and he’s in high school. English is what I teach, and he’s the age of my regular students. I may understand and connect with his way of thinking better than you do. Perhaps I can do something to help.”
I pulled her in and adjusted her legs so that she straddled me. “Baby, I’d love for you to meet my family, but there’s no way I’m gonna let you near that prick.”
She blinked, her eyes turning red, and her chin wobbled. Then she fidgeted on my lap. “Of course. I can’t be trusted with children.”
“Cazzo. No, baby.” I held her wrists, keeping her on me so she wouldn’t leave. Shit, I fucked up bad. “Oh my God, that was a joke. A very stupid joke. That’s not what I meant, y’all, and he’s not a fucking child anymore. Sure acting like one, but he’s past eighteen.”
“It doesn’t matter. He’s your kid, and you want to protect him from my kind.”
“Jesus Christ. No, Jo. Your kind is too innocent to be around his kind…or mine for all I know. I want to protect you from him.”
She sniffled, averting her gaze. “Why?”
Fuck. I wasn’t planning on scaring the shit out of her too soon with talks about how fucked up Rex was. Maybe even never. At least, not until I’d won her over and had her home tucked forever in my arms with nowhere to escape. “Let’s say he got my temper, and he can’t control it yet. With the way that mamma’s boy hates me, I don’t trust him around you. I know he’ll come around one day, and he’ll love you because no one can hate you, baby girl. But that day ain’t today.”
She finally looked at me, and I wiped her wet lids. Then I kissed her like there was no tomorrow.
“I’m not scared of him,” she said. “He’s just a boy with daddy issues. I can relate.”
I admired her courage and understanding, but it wasn’t just daddy issues or a temper he had. I didn’t talk about how he was messed up in the head, not even to myself, because I hoped when he was finally under my wings, away from his serpent of a mother, finding purpose and freedom in the club, knowing the true meaning of family, he’d find a way to get rid of that shit in his head.
“Allora, I am. Lo stronzo is a real charmer. Not an old fart like me. He’s more your age and might steal you away from me.”
She rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “Whatever. I wasn’t asking to meet him, by the way. I understand how sensitive he could be if he knew you and I were… He’d never listen to me. What I was offering was simply helping you write something to him. You mentioned you wrote him letters that he never responded to.”
“That would be kind of you, baby. I’d love that.”
“So tell me what he likes to read.”
