This is how I knew Dante understood me better than my siblings ever would. He’d grown up near me, worked with me, and become the brother-in-law I needed. He knew I wasn’t going to go off the deep end. “To her, it’s probably a good reason, Dante.”
“I don’t get siblings, okay?” he admitted. “She’s worrying for nothing.”
“To her, I might have OD’d.” I shrugged, trying not to hide the hurt in my voice.
“So then answer. That way she won’t think that,” he replied, like it was that easy.
I sighed because maybe it should have been that easy, maybe I shouldn’t have taken her worry for me offensively. “Give her the phone.”
I heard rustling and a baby cooing as my sister took over. “If it isn’t my elusive sister who needs to come visit very soon.”
“Hardly elusive. I just texted you.”
“Yeah, yesterday to cancel on me. What were you doing all day that prevented you from driving over?”
We were only thirty minutes apart, but I lived in the city while Lilah had moved to a farm back in our hometown not too far from our parents.
“I know it’s not far. I just had a lot to do.”
The voice that sounded exactly like mine pushed back with irritation. “I want you to answer when I call, not be busy, Izzy. You weren’t even working on Sunday. Now I’ve got like five minutes till you have to go.”
I sighed. Why did I tell her everything? Being honest about my schedule ended in her knowing about all my free time.
“See. You sighed. I knew something was wrong. I could feel it. You had that early Halloween party, then you didn’t answer after canceling plans with me and . . .” Her silence spoke volumes. Over the years, her trust in me had been broken. I wouldn’t get it back quickly.
Or maybe ever. I wondered if, to them, I was the addict in the family they’d always have to worry about. Maybe I’d need to reassure my sister I wasn’t going to be spiraling for the rest of my life.
But wasn’t that what I should be thankful for? I was lucky to have someone who would actually care about me like that forever, yet sometimes, I was tired of confirming my health—especially after nine years of sobriety.
“I’m fine, Lilah.”
“I know you’re fine that way,” she scoffed, but I heard the relief in her voice. “Something else is wrong, though. How was the Halloween party?”
“It was good.” I just hooked up with my boss and broke up with my boyfriend on the same night. Quite possibly ruined his car—might need a lawyer for that—and potentially could lose my job if my boss decides I’m too much of a headache. “Everything’s fine. But I have to get to work.”
“You’ve got five minutes. And if you don’t give me something, I’ll just sic Mom on you.”
“Okay. That’s below the belt.” I straightened in my seat.
“It’s not. I’m staying in her good graces, though, because I gave her a grandkid, so you’d better start talking.”
“I should have ruined your relationship with Dante when I had the chance,” I grumbled.
That got her laughing at least. “And to think I felt bad for you when he picked me over you.”
We laughed and some of her anger dissipated.
“So, you want me to call Mom, then? Have her come to your place and pry into your life?”
I stopped laughing. “You wouldn’t. You’d better not. Don’t be a bitch.”
“I’m a loving bitch, though.”
I weighed my options, and as my work building neared, I figured she was going to find out anyway. Cade probably shared things with his family and that included Dante. I really hated that they were cousins now. It’s how I’d met him. He’d shown up on my first day on the job with Dante and was introduced as Dante’s cousin and the head of cybersecurity.
So, I bit the bullet. “I have a lot going on with Gerald. We broke up, but he keeps texting . . . and then I might have hooked up with Cade.” I mumbled it quietly, hoping she would just leave it, but when I heard her gasp, I quickly continued. “But it was like a hate hookup, you know? Like, it won’t happen again, and now I have to face him at work, but he’s never there usually, so maybe I won’t see him. And I just hope to God I don’t lose my job.”
The line stayed silent. So long that I figured Delilah had hung up.
“You there?”
“What?” she screeched.
“I have to go to work.”
“Oh my God. I knew Cade had it bad for you,” she squealed. “Remember when you made the joke about kissing Dante at the fire and Cade looked like he was about to blow?”
“He didn’t—”
“He did,” she said with such conviction, I wasn’t going to argue. “And now it all makes sense. You were supposed to kiss an Armanelli man, you just got the wrong one the first time.”
I hated that she took what I’d done to her so lightly. “I never should have kissed Dante, Lilah—”
“If you apologize for that one more time, I’m driving over to smack you. It was the push I needed to realize I loved him and you found out he was just your friend anyway. Now, Cade, I bet, is not just a friend.”
I heard Dante’s voice snap out a “What?”
I was going to kill her. “Do not tell Dante. Or tell him not to say anything to Cade. I don’t want to make this a big deal at all.”
“Of course it’s a big deal.”
“You did hear me when I said that I broke up with Gerald, right?” I heaved a sigh and combed my fingers through my hair while sipping on the coffee I’d put in a thermos before running out of the house.
“I did. I bet Cade was a better kisser.”
He was. Damn it. “Lilah, stay focused. I really thought Gerald was so good for me and the family.”
I hated that I’d let the one thing the family needed to see from me slip away. Gerald was stable. He kept on an even keel. He was what they wanted for me.
Except that he cheated.
“For the family? Like us?” She burst out laughing. “We all hated him. You realize that our brothers were taking bets on when you’d finally break up with him, right? So good riddance.”
I choked on my coffee. She’d used the exact same tone that I had before I spray-painted him.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You all didn’t tell me you hated him!”
“Well, we want you to be happy,” she admitted, and I wrinkled my nose to keep my emotions at bay. They all coddled me too much.
As my Uber pulled up in front of Stonewood Tower, I sighed. “I really have to go. And don’t worry, I’m not at all sad about Gerald, in case you were wondering.”
“Well, I wasn’t really because he’s such a boring doormat.”
“Lilah! You said you liked him,” I reminded her again.
“Because you were dating him!”
“So, what? Now you like Cade? Because that’s not happening,” I said with emphasis as I stomped up toward the building in my stilettos.
“I think it’s happening. I want to go on a double date.”
“You’re out of your mind. Like way on another planet if you think that’s happening.”
“We’ll see.”
“Goodbye, you freak.”
“Takes one to know one!” she singsonged before I hung up on her.
The day was going to be terrible. After my conversation with Lilah, I could feel it.
Although Cade had never showed up at the office before, I knew he’d be there today. Somehow. Some way. Even as I set up my desk and sat down to go through my task list for the day, I knew I was already behind the eight ball.
Especially when my task list was empty.
“Juda, I don’t have any tasks listed. You having the same problem?”
“Um, no. My task list is very full. I was going to ask you about it because it seems you’ve added items back onto my list that I’ve already assigned you.” He scratched his thinning brown hair. “That’s unacceptable—”
“Izzy is strictly on IT today, Juda,” Cade said from across the hall as he made his way over from the elevators.
Every head in the office whipped toward his voice. I think I even heard Penelope gasp.
Cade Armanelli in a three-piece suit—black and pressed like he’d walked off the set of a photo shoot—was a sight for any fashionable woman, let alone for our motley team who barely attempted to dress anywhere close to business casual for work.
Cassie wore a damn T-shirt most days, and Juda was currently in shorts.
Thank God for my pencil skirt because at least he couldn’t look down his nose at me for not putting in the effort. And I needed that boost of confidence to let the furious question fly out of my mouth. “Strictly IT? You’re kidding me, right?”
“Why would a boss ever kid about assignments, Izzy? Your job title is IT specialist, isn’t it?”
Hands on my hips, I faced off with him. “We all do IT here, and most of us do more than that, including me.”