“I said stop!” I bellowed. “I don’t want anyone to fight!”
Both Damien and Dante were breathing like enraged bulls and glaring at each other. Dante’s nose was gushing blood, but Damien wasn’t bleeding. He looked as if he faired better out of the pair of them. I wasn’t even sure if they heard a word I said, but I knew the others did because I received a frown from each of them.
“Ye’know what?” I said to pair of saps, sniffling. “Kill each other for all I care. I’ve bigger things to worry about than your poxy egos.”
I stormed forward, snatched my keys from Harley’s hand without a thank you, and headed for my car.
“Alannah!” Damien shouted. “Please, wait. I’m sorry! Baby, wait!”
I ignored him. I got into my car, started the engine, and pulled out of the garage. Driving in the direction of my parents’ house, I did nothing but cry. My chest was rising and falling rapidly, and my hands had a death grip on my steering wheel. I was furious and hurt. Always fucking hurt. When I pulled up outside my parents’ house, I was glad to see my da’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I was a bit early for dinner, but I didn’t want to go back to my apartment and sit by myself. Not after what just happened at the garage.
When I got out of my car, I locked it and headed inside my parents’ house. The sound of my ma singing from the kitchen brought a small smile to my lips. She was always happy and always looked on the bright side of everything. I wished I was more like her and didn’t dwell on the things that made me miserable.
“Alannah, is that you, hon?”
I hung my coat on the rack.
“Yeah, Ma, it’s me.”
“Brilliant,” she chirped. “You can help me with dinner. I just got the veggies chopped. Da just called, and he will be joinin’ us tonight. Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah,” I echoed. “Great.”
I leaned against the wall and resisted the urge to smack my head against it. I’d already endured an awkward conversation with Dante and Damien today, as well as watch a fight between the stubborn eejits, and now I had to sit through a dinner with my parents and pretend I didn’t know that my da was sleeping with another woman.
Mondays fucking sucked.
“Alannah?”
I looked up. “Huh?”
My ma smiled at me.
“Hon, I’m talkin’ to you.”
She is?
“Sorry, Ma,” I said with a forced chuckle. “I was miles away.”
She came to my side and nudged me. “Is it a man who’s got you thinkin’ so hard?”
I looked at her, and the second I saw her devilish smirk, I laughed.
“You’re such a child,” I teased as I diced the chicken breasts.
“That wasn’t an answer,” she said, waggling her brows.
I shook my head, amused.
“Yeah, it’s about a man,” I said then clarified. “Two men, actually.”
“Two?” Ma whooped. “Gerrup ow’ da.”
I put down the knife, leaned my head back, and laughed until my sides hurt. She rarely spoke in slang, but when she did, it cracked me up.
“It’s not as excitin’ as it sounds,” I assured her, still chuckling. “It’s actually the complete opposite.”
“Tell me everythin’.”
I was glad my ma was the type of mother that I could tell everything to, and for that reason alone, it killed me even more that I was keeping my da’s affair from her. I told her everything, but I couldn’t bring myself to put that on her shoulders. I’d rather it be my burden to carry than hers.
“Ye’know Damien Slater, right?”
“The little shite who took your virginity then up and fled the country when you were eighteen?”
My lips quirked. “Yup.”
“What about ’im?”
“I told you that he came back from America not long before Jax was born,” I added. “Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, what I haven’t told you is that he’s been tryin’ very hard to make up for what he did when we were kids. He’s been really nice to me and hasn’t done anythin’ to upset me. He’s given me space and has been an all-round gentleman.”
“But?”
“But.” I sighed. “I’m terrified that somethin’ bad will happen again if I let ’im in. The last time, we weren’t even a couple, and he really did a number on me. I’m scared that even bein’ just his friend will hurt because if he got with another woman ... it’d kill me.”
I couldn’t deny my romantic feelings for Damien anymore, not after the kiss we shared at his job. I knew that deep down I had always harboured feelings for him, but after we fell out and he left, my mind did everything possible to cover up those feelings. I guess I believed if I denied how I truly felt about him, then I would get over him.
That clearly hadn’t worked out too well.
“So, you don’t want to be Damien’s friend or anythin’ more because you’re scared of gettin’ hurt, but you also don’t want ’im to be with anyone else ... because that would also hurt you.”