Scarred: A New Adult Romance (The Anderson Brothers Series Book 1) (24 page)

“Hey.
You still home?” Larry asks, his voice gruff. He sounds like he’s driving.

“Yeah.
’Bout to head out in a few.”

“Give
me about … ” Larry’s quiet for a moment, then says, “five minutes.”
Click.

I
stare at the screen.
The hell?
I hold
it back to my ear. “Hello? Larry?”

Silence.

Is he coming over?
Larry has only come over
once, and that was last year to give me my wallet that I’d left at work that
day. I quickly dress in a black and yellow hoodie over a gray T-shirt, a pair
of faded, loose-fitting jeans, and black sports shoes. I race down the stairs
to the living room and peek out the blinds. The streets are dark and empty.

Maybe I just misunderstood
what he said.
He can be weird like that sometimes. I grab my keys and helmet from the
kitchen and head out the back door. As I’m walking my bike out from around the
side of the duplex, I hear the low rumble of a truck approaching. A pair of
headlights shine in the street. I swallow.
Larry?
I hustle to the front and see Larry’s blue and white pickup truck parked at the
curb. I stand there in the walkway, open-mouthed, my helmet in one hand, my
keys in the other.

Holy shit.

The
passenger-side window lowers, and Larry peers at me. “Didn’t I tell you to give
me five minutes?” he calls.

I
smile. “Sorry, guess I misunderstood.”

“Whatever,
boy. Get your ass in this truck.”

I
gesture for him to hold on and put my bike and helmet away. Afterward, I hustle
to the truck and hop in. Larry’s dressed pretty sharp, like he’s ready to have
some fun at a club. I almost don’t recognize him. I’ve never seen him dressed
in anything other than jeans and his blue work shirt that’s always smeared with
oil and dirt by the end of the day.

“Damn,
well, this is a surprise,” I say, buckling up.

“What
can I say, I’m full of surprises.” He sounds so serious when he says that, it
makes me laugh.

As usual
for this time on a Monday night, the streets aren’t very busy, and we make it
to the interstate in mere minutes.

“Thanks
again for doing this with me, man,” I say. “It really means a lot.”

“Eh.”

I
chuckle. “You’ll thank me that you took some time off for yourself for a
change.”

“I
already take enough time off for myself to eat, sleep, and shit. I’m
considering this as doing a favor for a friend.”

“And
I’m
considering this a sign of the
fucking apocalypse. I actually managed to get your ass out of the shop.”

He
looks over at me, amusement in his eyes, says nothing, and returns his
attention to the road.

We
pull up to Chauncey’s, which is crowded as usual, no matter what day it is. We
head inside and find two seats at the bar. Ironically, these are the same seats
that Kevin and I sat in last time. A guy is working the bar tonight instead of
Olivia. He looks new. A group of guys are playing darts nearby, and a mixed
crowd is gathered at the foosball table in the back.

“I’m
buyin’,” I say, reaching in my back pocket for my wallet.

Larry
puts his hand on my shoulder, and I freeze. “No.
I’m
buyin’.”

I
blink. “C’mon, man. You drove. I’ll buy.”

He
gives me one of those hard stares. The kind a parent gives a kid when they’re
acting up. The kind that says, “if you argue with me, I’ll knock the shit out
of you.” And coming from Larry, I’ve no doubt he’d smash me open with one of
those steel fists of his. Swallowing, I hold my hands up in surrender. “Okay,
okay, you’re buyin’.”

He
orders some beer on tap. I get my usual.

“I
didn’t
just
come here to do a favor
for a friend, you know,” Larry says, tipping back his drink.

I
stop in mid-swig and look over the glass at him.

“Thought
it might be a good time to talk,” he says. “Get whatever’s on your mind out.”

I
lower the glass and stare at the bobbing ice cubes inside. “She’s the only
thing on my mind right now,” I say, just loud enough for him to hear. “Nothing
else matters.”

“Why
didn’t you do something with her tonight, then?”

“She
had some stuff to do with her friend.”

“So
you’re stuck with me, eh?” He looks amused and takes another gulp.

“I
do worry about her. All the time. I know what it’s like to—” I bite off my
words. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be rambling about that.”

“Rambling
about what? Out with it, kid.”

I
purse my lips. I never really told Larry about my past, and I’m not sure why. I
can trust him, like Kevin. I down the rest of my drink.

“Well?”
He gives me that look again, and it makes me cringe. I bet he was a great
parent, keeping his kids in line with that look alone.

I
rub the back of my neck. “It’s not easy to say.”

He
finishes his beer and then shifts on his stool, one elbow resting on the
counter. He looks at me and lowers his
voice. “I’m listening.”

I
pause as I try to find the right words. “What almost happened to Denise”—I
close my eyes—“actually happened to me.

Even
over all the noise in the bar, I can hear him hiss. My skin tingles with goose
bumps from his tension. I open my eyes and stare at him. Sadly. The way he looks
back at me is genuine concern. Pity. Guilt.

Leaning
his head closer to mine, he mutters, “You were raped?”

I
look back at the melting ice in my drink and give him the slightest of nods.
“By my father.”

He
leans back on his stool and sighs then turns back to the bar and orders another
beer. He seems to be thinking hard on something. Perhaps wondering how to
respond to something like that. But no response is required. It is what it is.
Clenching my jaw, I signal to the bartender for a refill, as well. A mug and a
glass slide our way, and I don’t hesitate to bring my drink to my lips.

“Sorry
to hear that, kid,” he says. “I really am.”

My
eyes burn, and I know it’s not from the rum. “I’m dealing with it,” I say,
holding back my tears. “The memory’s still there, of course.”

“It’ll
always be there, unfortunately.” His grip tightens around the mug’s handle, and
his knuckles whiten. “Where’s your father now?”

The
way he asks that, I think he’s going to hunt him down and kill him. I wish he
had. I wish he could. “He’s dead. Committed suicide before the cops could
arrest him, the coward.” I try to laugh it off. “God, I have such a fucked up
life.” I gulp down the rum-infused Coke, and chew on an ice cube afterward.

“No,”
Larry says, placing his hand on my shoulder. His touch—his voice—soothes my
emotions. Kind of like what hearing Denise’s voice did to me that night at the
party. “You have a better life without him around. If there’s one thing I
believe in, that’s destiny. Things happen for a reason, even the darkest things.
Maybe experiencing that dark point in your life was needed for you to save
another’s—like Denise.”

What?
I narrow my eyes and shrug
off his hand. “Are you shitting me, Larry? You’re saying that I
should
have gotten raped?” I say that a
little louder than I should, but luckily no one around us seems to be paying
attention to our conversation.

Larry
shakes his head. “No! Of course not. No one deserves that.”

I
sigh and lower my head.

Larry
orders his third beer. “You know the saying ‘love conquers all’?”

“What
about it?”

“That
was my motto when I used to box. Still is. Everyone fights for what they
believe in. Everyone fights for what they love the most, no matter how bad it
gets. You’re in a dark tunnel right now, Dominick. Been stuck in that dark tunnel
for a while. But you can’t give up what you believe in, what you love. Because
what you love the most will be waiting for you at the end of that tunnel.”

Speechless,
I lean my elbows on the countertop and rub my hands over my face. I think I’m
having déjà vu here.
That’s pretty much
what Uncle Adam told me.
The rum burns my stomach. I’m already feeling a
buzz after three drinks. God, I’m such a lightweight compared to Kevin.

“You
okay?” Larry asks.

I
rub my eyes, nodding. “Yeah, man. I’m good. Just thinking.”

Larry
nurses his beer. “If I could’ve adopted you as my son after that shit happened,
I totally would have.”

I
blink, my buzz suddenly going away.
Is he
for real?
I would have taken him in a heartbeat if only to get back some
sliver of the childhood that had been ripped from me. “That’s deep, man,” I
finally say, running my finger around the brim of my ice-filled glass. “You’ve
always been like a father to me, since I met you.”

Larry
pauses in mid-gulp and looks sidelong at me.

“Besides
Kevin, and maybe my uncle, you’re the only man I’ve ever looked up to.”

A
hint of a smile appears on his lips. “Jesus Christ, Dominick. Does it matter
whether or not you call me ‘Dad’? I’m still the same person either way.”

“Yeah,
I guess you’re right. Man, your kids are lucky to have someone like you.”

He
guffaws. “What kids?”

I
blink. “Oh, sorry. I just assumed you had kids.”

He
finishes his beer, then sets the empty mug on the counter. “Nope. And no
family, either, though I was once told I had an aunt somewhere in
Philadelphia.”

“No
family? You mean you’ve lived alone your whole life?”

“I
was left abandoned outside a hospital not long after I was born. Went through
the system and all that. I was glad when I was finally old enough to get out on
my own.”

Who
the fuck wouldn’t have wanted to adopt someone like Larry? I bet he was
probably the best kid a family could ever ask for. Why do good people always
have to be shitted on? “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Larry
scowls. “Those agencies were a joke. Felt like a puppy in a pet shop. I hated
it. Anyway.” He looks at me. “You’re not alone, Dominick. You ever need
anything, I got your back.”

And
just like that, my anger ebbs. Larry’s such a good man. He needs more friends.
Maybe even a girlfriend or wife. A family. All these years, he’s been alone.
Fixing cars or doing whatever he does. Hopefully, he at least knows how much I
appreciate him.

Larry
slaps down some money on the counter and stands. “It’s getting late. And as
much as I’d like to stay here and drink some more, I have work to do back at
the shop.”

Sighing,
I stand as well. I guess good things don’t last forever. “All right. Well, I’m
glad you came here with me.”

“No
problem.” He reaches in his back pocket for his keys. Then his body suddenly
goes still. He stands there, hand stuffed in his back pocket, staring toward
the entrance.

His
surprised expression confuses me, so I nudge him in the arm. “You okay? Need me
to drive tonight?”

“Fuck
no,” he says in a long, drawn-out whisper.

I
scrunch my face and follow his gaze. I freeze as well.

It’s
Lauren.

And
Denise.

Chapter 25

The two women make their way to a vacant table. My jaw
drops at the sight of Denise. She looks like she just stepped out of a fashion
magazine. Her hair’s done up in a new cornrowed design in the front and falls
away in a thick, curly, twist-out ponytail in the back, secured with a yellow
ribbon. She wears a black-and-white-striped tank top under a yellow short
jacket and denim capri pants. Her open-toed platform shoes reveal yellow
painted toenails.

Lauren’s
dressed just as stylishly in a red halter top and black, loose-fitting pants,
making her look twenty years younger. Around her neck hangs a ruby red gem.
Both arms are decorated in an array of wristlets and bangles. The makeup on her
face is done just right, and her dreadlocks are tied back in a ponytail.

I
exhale, taking them both in.
Holy shit.
Is this girls’ night out, or are they trying to snag dates?
I cringe at the
thought.

I
go to nudge Larry, but he’s not there. He’s headed to their table. I chase
after him.

Lauren
whispers something to Denise and then rises from her chair, but Larry closes in
on her. I swoop in behind him to Denise. The two women look at us with a start.

“Dominick?”
Denise says, eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”

I
plant a kiss on her cheek. Unlike Lauren, she’s wearing no makeup other than
that peach lip gloss, just the way I like it. “I should be asking
you
that. I thought you two were getting
food?”

Denise
shows off that contagious smile of hers. “We did, and then Lauren wanted to get
a drink afterward.” She looks to her roommate, and I follow her gaze. Lauren
and Larry practically ogle each other.

I
smirk. “Hey, Larry, don’t you have some work to do at the shop?

Larry
cuts his eyes to me. “I think I have a little time to spare.”

“Shop?”
Lauren asks, penciled eyebrows raised.

“He’s
a mechanic, too. But don’t worry, he doesn’t have a motorcycle,” I say.

Denise
laughs, and so does Lauren.

Larry
coughs, clearly uncomfortable with having all the attention on him. “Can I get
you a drink?” he asks Lauren.

Lauren’s
smile broadens, and she nods. “Sure, thanks. Margarita on the rocks.”

Larry
nods and looks over to Denise. “How about you?”

“Long
Island iced tea, please.”

“Wait,
Larry, I can get Denise’s—” I fall silent when he gives me one of those looks,
and I hold my hands up in surrender. “Never mind.”

His
face softens, and he leaves.

I
pull up a chair beside Denise and sit. “So what are you two all dressed up for
tonight?”

“It’s
girls’ night out,” Lauren says. “We went out shopping at the mall all afternoon
and got one of those free makeovers.”