“What about Lucy?”
Vincent laughed and gave Jared a teasing smile, and I looked over at Jared in
surprise.
“You dating Lucy?”
“What? No, no, of
course not.” Jared made a face and turned away from me, so I didn’t push the
issue. There was no way I wanted him dating Lucy. That would make it that much
harder to get Joey out of our lives. And if there was one thing I wanted by the
end of everything, it was for Joey to be a distant memory.
“Fine, tell Joey
that we will start the training as soon as his friend is ready. Also, I have a
favor to ask you guys.”
“Uh huh?” Jared
and Vincent looked at me curiously.
“We need to clean
this place up.”
“Huh?” Jared made
a face.
“We need to tidy
up this house.” I took a deep breath. “I want to invite someone over.”
“What?” Jared’s
jaw fell open.
“I said we need to
tidy up. This place is a mess.”
“
Uhm
, I heard that part. I’m talking about the inviting
someone over part.”
“What about it?”
“You’ve never
invited anyone over. None of us have.”
“Well, I am
wanting to invite someone over now.”
“Who?” Jared
stared at me through narrow eyes.
“Maddie.”
“What the fuck?”
Jared’s face grew red.
Vincent looked at
me in confusion. “Who’s Maddie?”
“He’s talking
about, Maddison Wright, the mayor’s daughter.”
“The mayor’s
daughter?” Vincent’s eyes grew wide. “What?”
“Exactly.” Jared
turned towards me again. “What are you thinking, Logan? What is Dad going to
say if you bring her over here?”
“I don’t care what
he has to say.” My voice was serious and I stood up. “She wants to get to know
you both, and I think it’s a good idea.”
“What the fuck?”
Jared exclaimed again and gave me a crazy look. “Are you fucking kidding me?
Not only are you not getting her father back, but you’re dating her?”
“She isn’t
responsible for what her father did.” I spoke slowly, understanding why he was
upset but wanting him to understand why I liked her.
“We’re not
responsible for what happened to our father, but we still got screwed. Is this
a fucking joke? You’re going to date the fucking mayor’s daughter. The man who
basically ruined our lives. He fucking turned Dad into an alcoholic and he
killed our mother. And we can’t even afford to pay the fucking rent. Do you
hear me, Logan? He fucked up our lives and now … now you have the opportunity
to exact revenge on him for all this shit, and you decide to date his daughter.
And no, not to get the best revenge ever. But because you like her.”
“I never said I
liked her.”
“So you just want
her to come over because …?” Jared rolled his eyes. “And why do we need to get
to know her? This sounds like a bad idea.”
“She’s not like
her dad.”
“How do you know?”
Jared jumped up as well. “You barely know her. Dude, she was obsessed with you
as a teenager and now she is having a summer of fun with you. Do you really
think this could become something serious?”
“Stop it, Jared.”
Vincent raised his voice.
“You are not
taking his side.” Jared shook his head in disgust.
“I’m not taking anyone’s
side. I’m just saying stop it.” Vincent ran his hands through his hair and
looked thoughtful. “We need to support Logan. I’m sure he knows what he’s
doing.”
“Thanks.” I gave
him a grateful smile and swallowed hard. I looked away and my brain felt like
it was about to explode. The problem was I really didn’t know what I was doing.
I felt like I was spinning out of control. Everything just felt crazy, and it was
all changing so fast. An image of Maddie’s sweet smile flashed in my mind, and
I felt my insides melt as I thought about her. I wasn’t even sure when I had
decided that she should meet Vincent and get to know Jared better. But I knew
that I needed to give her something to show that I was serious about trying to
create something special between us. I wasn’t even really sure what we could
create. How could her family ever accept me? How could I ever explain to my
father that I was dating the daughter of the man who betrayed him? And what if
all along the story my father had told wasn’t exactly true? Why hadn’t he told
me that Mom had dated the mayor first? He had always said that the mayor had
tried to date her but she had chosen Dad and been happy with him. Had she
really dated the mayor first? Had Dad stolen her from him? And had that been
why the mayor had set him up? Had it been some sort of sick revenge that had
gone out of control? All of a sudden, I felt overwhelmed and dizzy. Too many
things were coming up that didn’t make sense or fit in with the life I had made
for myself.
“Look, guys, I
know how hard this must be for you. And Jared, I know you hoped that I would
use Maddie’s liking me to exact some sort of revenge on her father for what he
did to Dad, but that’s not going to happen. I am not going to do anything to
her. I like her a lot, and she’s a good person. And I want you both to get to
know her. I want you both to see the woman that I see. Please give her a
chance.”
“Fuck giving her a
chance.” Jared turned away from me. “If I have to take matters into my own
hands, I will.”
“Leave her alone,
Jared.” My voice held a warning tone.
“Or what?” Jared
scoffed. “What will you do?”
“You don’t want to
know.” I grabbed his arm and looked down into his face. “Do not do anything to
her or I will fuck you up.”
“Ha, she’s already
got you threatening me. She sounds like a great catch. Not like her dad at
all.” Jared pushed me away.
“Guys.” Vincent
jumped up and stood between us. “Come on. We can’t afford to get upset with
each other right now. Not when we are about to do the biggest job of our
lives.”
“Whatever.” Jared
glared at me. “I can separate the two. I just didn’t expect for Logan to betray
us like this.”
“Stop being so
overdramatic, Jared.” I glared back at him. “Fucking give Maddie a chance. Do
you really think I haven’t thought this through? Do you really think I would
risk everything if she wasn’t someone special?”
“Who knows?” He
shrugged. “She’s pretty, maybe she gave it up and she got you hooked.”
“Shut the fuck
up.” I swung out to hit him and Vincent grabbed my fist.
“Come on, guys.”
“You’re not going
to talk about her like that and not expect me to thump your sorry ass.” I
glared at Jared and he looked at me contemplatively.
“You’re lucky
you’re my brother.” He shook his head. “I would have fucked you up so badly.”
“Really? You would
have fucked me up?” I scoffed back at him.
“Yeah, I would
have fucked you up.” He laughed, and I laughed as well, as the tension in the
room drifted away slightly.
“So, we all down
to clean?”
“I guess.” Vincent
groaned. “When is she coming over?”
“I don’t know
yet.” I looked at them with an embarrassed smile. “We kind of had an argument
when she left, so I’m going to let her cool down and when she calls me I’ll
invite her over.”
“It’s already
rocky, and you want us to meet her?” Jared shook his head in amazement. “This
is going to be so ironic if she breaks your heart.”
“Jared.” Vincent
looked at him in admonishment.
“Let’s be real, it
would be kind of crazy if she ends up breaking his heart. Talk about some sort
of fucking poetic justice, right?” Jared gave me a rueful smile. “I mean, I
hope it doesn’t happen, but I just honestly can’t see this going well.”
“Let me worry
about that.” I stretched. “Anyways, I
gotta
go to bed.
Talk to Joey, and let me know what’s going on. We can start the cleaning in the
morning.”
“And can we get
some food?” Vincent’s voice was soft, and I nearly cursed myself. I had already
forgotten we didn’t have any food.
“Look, here’s
$400.” I put the cash on the table. “It’s all we got for the car, don’t ask. We
need to make it last.”
“Soon we’ll have
the table filled with cash.” Jared grinned and I smiled weakly, trying to
ignore the gnawing feeling in my stomach.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Night, guys.”
“Night, bro.”
Vincent sat back down and opened up his textbook. I looked over to Jared, who
was staring at me with a slightly apologetic expression in his eyes.
“Night, Logan.” He
offered me a peace smile and I walked back to him and gave him a quick hug.
“I know you got my
back bro, it’s okay,” I whispered into his ear before walking out of the room.
I tried to hurry past the living room, but I wasn’t fast enough.
“Logan, is that
you?” my dad called out to me, and I opened the door and peered up.
“What’s up, Dad?”
I stood at the door and avoided eye contact with him. I didn’t want to look
into his vacant bloodshot eyes tonight. I didn’t want to talk about Mom or hear
stories about his life. Or be shouted at or questioned. I just couldn’t deal
with it.
“I was just
watching this movie, and the actress, she looked like your mom.”
“Yeah?” I nodded
and looked at the TV screen. He was watching some old movie on AMC.
“She had long
blonde hair like your mom, though she wasn’t as beautiful.”
“Okay.”
“Your mom was the
most beautiful woman in the world.” His voice cracked and I finally looked over
at him. He was lying down on the couch and there were tears streaming out of
his eyes.
“She was
beautiful.”
“Why did she have
to die?” He looked up at me with a pained expression. “She promised me we would
grow old together. She promised me she would stand with me through thick and
thin, good and bad. But she lied.”
“She didn’t lie, Dad.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “She died.”
“It was my fault.”
He sat up, and reached to grab an empty beer can from the pile of cans at his
feet.
“It wasn’t your
fault.” I sighed. “She had cancer.”
“Have you ever
been in love, son?” He looked at me searchingly.
“No.”
“When you’re in
love, that person becomes a part of you. What happens to them, happens to you,
and you do everything you can to protect them.” He crushed the beer can in his
hand. “And I didn’t protect her.”
“It wasn’t your
fault, Dad.”
“I wasn’t the man
for her.” He shook his head. “Sometimes when you love someone, you have to know
when to let go. Sometimes no matter how much you love someone, you have to let
go, because even your best person is not the best person for them.”
“She loved you, Dad.”
I tried to comfort him, but my mind immediately went to Maddie. She liked me a
lot, and I liked her. I really liked her, more than I was willing to admit. And
a part of me wondered if I was just fooling myself. Could any of this ever
work? Even if we made the million dollars, I’d still be a
Martelli
and a thief. And she would be Maddie: beautiful, intelligent, wonderful, caring
Maddie. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to give her the life that she
deserved. The life that I wanted for her.
“But where did
that get her?”
“It got her three children.”
“She wanted to
leave me.” He threw the crushed can at the TV. “She wanted to leave me and take
you boys.”
“I know.”
“I told her she
would have to kill me first.” He picked up another can from the ground. “Turns
out, it was she who died.” He started sobbing. “What did I do, Logan? Where did
I go wrong? I sit back and look at my life, and I don’t understand. Where did I
go wrong? How did this become my life?”
“I don’t know.” I
bit my lip as I stared at him. But in my mind all I could think was,
it was the mayor, the mayor did this to you,
Dad
. And a part of me broke all over again. How could we ever get through
this?
“She was in love
with someone else when she started dating me.” It took a few seconds for his
words to resonate in my brain, and I froze as I realized what he had just said.
“What do you
mean?” I frowned and walked closer to him, so I could look into his face as he
spoke.
“She was dating
someone else. Someone she was in love with.” He laughed. “But I loved her, and
I knew she had to be mine.”
“What do you
mean?” My voice rose. “Who was she dating?”
“It doesn’t
matter.” He frowned as he took me in. “Get me a beer.”
“There is no more
beer.”
“What the fuck do
you mean?” His tone changed and his face grew red. “I need a fucking beer, you
fucking idiot.”
“You need to go to
rehab, Dad.”
“I don’t need to
go to fucking rehab. I need a fucking beer.”
“Dad.” I took a
deep breath. “Who was Mom dating when you met her?”
“James.” He
laughed. “She was fucking dating James. But I got her in the end.” He smirked.
“Serves his pompous ass right. The rich guy doesn’t always win out in the end.”
“I thought you
dated Mom, and that the mayor just liked her, Dad. What do you mean she was
dating James first?”
“It doesn’t
matter.” His eyes looked away from mine. “I need another beer.”
“Dad, we need to
talk about this.”
I watched as he
picked up the remote control and started switching the channels. He lay back
down on the ratty couch, and I watched as he kicked some potato chip packets
onto the floor. I surveyed the room and all the dirt and knew that I needed to
make changes in here as well. I could no longer sit by idly, and let my dad
wallow in this mess. I couldn’t be scared of him anymore.
“Dad, I’m going to
clean this room tomorrow.”
“Just make sure
you get me some beer.”
“Dad, we need to
talk about—”
“Get me some
beer.” He reached down and grabbed another beer can from the floor, and this
time he threw it at me.
“Night, Dad,” I
sighed and walked out of the room. There was no point trying to deal with him
right now. As I walked up the stairs, I thought about what Maddie had told me
and about what my dad had just said about my mom and the mayor. What was going
on? The story was changing rapidly, and now I was beginning to question
everything.