“Even if you have kids one day?”
I wasn’t stupid. I knew where this was coming from, and I’d messed up by not addressing it with him. So I made sure to wrap my arm around his forearm and kiss the soft skin there. “If I ever decide to pop out a baby, he or she is going to be your brother or sister. If you think of them as your cousins, it would break my heart and I’d give you a wedgie until you said otherwise. We’re family. There’s nothing tighter than blood.” I paused, needing to make him laugh. “And vomit. There’s no going back once you’ve been thrown up on.”
He sniffled, and I could sense him nod his agreement.
I swallowed and decided to take advantage of the moment. “I need to tell you something that has nothing to do about what just happened, but about our family, okay?”
“What?” he croaked suspiciously.
“Dallas—”
“Oh.”
“Oh, what?”
“I know about Mr. Dallas already,” he announced.
I sat up and set an elbow under me, watching his puffy, red face as he stared up at the ceiling. “What do you know?”
“He loves you. You love him,” he muttered with an eye roll, glancing down at me briefly before focusing up again. “You know, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Aunt Di with a baby carriage.”
Uhh, where the hell had that come from? “How… did you know?”
“I have eyes?”
This fucking smart-ass.
“And he told me.”
“What did he tell you?”
He glanced at me from his spot still lying flat on the mattress. “Remember when Jonathan’s mom yelled at you during the tournament and you cried?” How could I forget? “He told me.”
What the hell? “What did he say?”
Josh rolled his eyes, sliding his elbows underneath his shoulders to sit up, bored with this conversation. “I don’t know. He said he liked you—yuck.” I blinked at him. “One day during practice when we saw that dad talking to you, I told him I didn’t like you talking to him, and he said he didn’t either. So I asked him what we should do, and he said nothing because you were never gonna do anything with him and that one day soon, between me and him, none of those jackasses—he said it, not me, don’t get mad—would never bother you again.”
Was my heart about to burst or was I imagining it? “And what did you tell him?”
“I told him okay as long as he didn’t make me go live with Grandma and Grandpa—”
“I would never make you go live somewhere else!”
“That’s what he said! Jeez. He said he knew I already have a dad, and he told me that his dad died too and that he knew that if his mom had got married again when he was young, that he would never call anybody else Dad. So, he said we could be friends and he could show me how to do stuff and we could be a family, that I didn’t have to call him anything but Dallas if I didn’t want to.”
I was not going to cry. I was not going to cry. “And what did you tell him?”
“I said okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?”
He grinned. “What did you want me to do? Ask him for money?”
I burst out laughing. “You’re the man of the house. You can’t just give me up like that.”
He shrugged and said, “You know how many Xbox games he has?”
My mouth fell open and I shook my head at him. “You traded me for Xbox games. I cannot believe it.”
“Believe it.”
Where the hell had this monster come from? Had I created this?
I had. I really had.
“Just don’t kiss in front of me. That’s gross,” he added with a shudder.
“Your face is gross.”
“Not as gross as yours.”
I grinned at him, and he grinned right back.
“You really don’t care if I…” What word was I supposed to use? Date? It seemed like so much more than that already. “See Dallas all the time? If he comes over a lot and stuff?”
Josh shrugged as he sat up completely, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hands. “I don’t care, Aunt Di. I like him, and Louie likes him, and he likes you a lot. That’s why he’s always doing stuff for us. Just… don’t kiss, and close the door to your room. I don’t wanna see anything. Dean told me about stuff he’s seen his dad do, and that’s nasty.”
His words made me pause. That’s why he’s always doing stuff for us. Had Josh seen this before me?
And what the hell was Dean telling him? I needed to talk to Trip.
He pushed his knee against mine, grabbing my attention. “Are you gonna tell Abuelita you have a boyfriend?” he asked.
Shit. “I have to. One day.”
Josh smirked. “She’s gonna be mad.”
“Too bad for her, huh?” I smiled at him and reached over to pinch his nose. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah,” he said a little softer than a moment before, his expression turning just slightly grim.
“Good.” I dropped my legs off the bed. “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
“I’m just…” He patted his pillow. “I’m gonna play some games and go to bed.”
Standing up, I nodded. “Okay. I love you with all my heart.”
“I know. Love you too.”
With two exchanged smiles, I left his room, closing the door behind me just as he called for Mac to join him on the bed. I could see the light in the living room on, the sound of voices from the TV drifting down the hall, but first, I headed to Louie’s room. The door had been left cracked, and I peeked in to find the small body face down under the covers.
I sure as hell wasn’t going to wake him up to get him into pajamas. He wasn’t going to die sleeping in his clothes. From how much he’d played with the other kids on the playground, he was going to sleep all night.
Backing out, I headed the few feet down the hall, keeping weight off my ankle that was all of a sudden reminding me that I’d twisted it. When I got to the living room, I found Dallas on the couch with the television on. His thighs were spread wide and he had a hand on one, the other was draped across the back of the sofa.
“Hey,” I whispered to him, limping over.
“What happened?” he asked, watching me carefully.
“I rolled my ankle outside. It hurts.”
He frowned as I stopped beside his knees on the couch and plopped down. Before I could even sit back, he leaned over and swung my legs onto his lap, my knees bent over the middle of him, feet on the couch on his other side.
“Josh okay?” he asked as his hand went straight for my foot, his thumb sweeping gently over the bone.
“He was pretty upset, but he’ll be fine,” I explained, watching his fingers move over me. “She left I’m guessing?”
He hummed. “She’s gone, I made sure.”
“Thanks.”
His palm went down to cup my heel. “Will you tell me about the situation with the boys’ moms? I get that Louie and Josh don’t share the same one.”
I scooted my butt over on the couch until my hip came in contact with his, where I was basically one move away from sitting on his lap. My dress had hiked up pretty high, but I didn’t worry about it. He’d seen more of my legs than this the day of the fire. “My brother was married to Louie’s mom. She’s like you—”