Levi #3
“Oh, there he is!” a new voice piped up, and I froze as I watched Matilda hurry toward me.
A panic I couldn’t describe filled me. First came the instinct to back out of the room before she could get to me.
That was immediately quashed because there was no way in hell I was going to do that to her.
The other was panicking about where to put my drink because I suspected what she would do when she reached me.
That was solved when I felt Dom pluck it from my hand and take a sip as he stepped back.
Matilda didn’t hesitate as she stepped over Milo, who looked even more offended that his mother didn’t bother to even look at him.
My eyes were wide, and my hands came up as if that was somehow going to stop the inevitable.
There was no stopping her, though, and I was immediately crushed against her.
The last time I’d seen her, I was only a little taller than her, but puberty had its way with me since then, and now she was just up to my chin.
That didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around me and squeezing tight, pinning my arms. I realized she was still wearing the same perfume she had worn all those years ago.
I remembered hearing once that smell had the strongest ties to memory, and I realized how true it was.
A collage of memories, too many and too fast for me to keep track, rushed through me as I breathed deep of her perfume that reminded me of flowers dipped in wine.
My eyes stung suddenly, and I had to fight them before they spilled over.
Dom stood behind her, and I realized in one of those intuitive flashes that he was doing what he could to block us from the rest of the room.
He was smiling softly as he watched us, gave me a knowing look, then turned as if he had found something else interesting.
“Oh my God, you’ve gotten so big since the last time I saw you,” she exclaimed as she backed up to grip my biceps in her hands and give a squeeze. “And got even more handsome than before.”
“I’m not sure there was much handsome there to begin with,” I told her.
“Ah, well, you were a twiggy little thing, I’ll give you that. But that’s not really fair when I’ve had sons like Dom and Mason to compare to everyone else,” she said with a grin. “But you are handsome. Oh, and so well dressed too, it’s nice to see you got out of those baggy clothes.”
“Not really my thing anymore,” I said in a tight voice. “It’s...good to see you again, Matilda.”
She beamed up at me. “You would have seen me a lot more if you bothered to come around.”
“Well, I—”
“But you’re here now, and that’s what matters, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose it does,” I said, then frowned at the dark mark on her face. “What is...what happened to you?”
She blinked before scoffing and waving a hand at me. “Oh, just a little excitement. Enough to last me a lifetime. But do me a favor, sweetheart?”
“Of course,” I said immediately because I didn’t think I had it in me to deny her anything.
“Don’t go mentioning this little boo boo around Arlo and Ward, alright?” she said, and I could see the way her eyes narrowed. She was being sweet, but she was also mentally reaching for the knives she always had at the ready when someone pissed her off. Moira had gotten it from somewhere after all.
“Who’s Ward?” I wondered.
Dom reappeared, handing me my glass. “Arlo went and found himself a boyfriend.”
I blinked. “No shit?”
“No shit,” Matilda repeated. “Ward is sweet...a little fancy, and a lot fancier than I pictured for any of my kids, even Arlo. But they’re sweet together, and I can tell you that man loves Arlo to the moon and back.”
“I’m not going to argue when you sound so sure,” I said, glancing at Dom, who winced.
“I forgot to tell you,” he said softly. “It’s a story that I’ll get into later, okay? Not around them.”
“Sure,” I said, confused but realizing the bruise on Matilda’s face was probably connected to whatever it was Dom wasn’t telling me about Arlo and Ward.
“Good,” Matilda said, gesturing. “Now come on, sit, sit. I made sure it was extra special this time because I knew you were coming.”
“Sure,” I repeated, and something clicked in my head. It only clicked because, so far, everything I had relearned about this family meant the weird and wonderful followed them everywhere like a happy dog. “I uh...this Ward, he wouldn’t happen to be the governor of Oregon’s son, would he?”
Dom snorted. “Only you would be able to put that together from a simple name.”
“Mmm, no. I put it together because that’s exactly the sort of thing I’d expect from your family,” I said with a laugh.
Dom stepped in front of me, blocking my view of his family and me from them. Smiling, he reached up and used the corner of his nice shirt to dab at my eyes. “There. Wouldn’t want the family to know you have sentimental feelings about them or something.”
“Thank you,” I said, realizing I hadn’t even been thinking about being on display for them.
So far, not one of them had batted an eye at my presence.
Oh sure, they’d been told I was coming, and there had been a couple of comments about my absence and about sticking around, but no one had seemed mad or upset.
In fact, all of them had taken my absence as if I had been on a business trip rather than gone fifteen years because I’d made a decision that impacted my life and Dom’s.
From behind him came a soft voice. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“Marcus,” I exclaimed, wincing when I realized how loud it was. “God, have you aged at all?”
“Only on the inside, kids will do that to you,” he said with a chuckle, and I reached out to take his hand. “It’s good to see you again, Levi. No one wants to say it, but you had us all worried for a while there. Disappearing without a trace.”
“I—”
“Don’t,” he said quickly. “Don’t apologize. It’s not necessary. You were a kid, doing the best he could with what he had, alright? But...it would have been nice to know every once in a while that you were okay.”
“Mmm,” Dom hummed, and I shot him a look. He was unrepentant as he looked back at me, shrugging when I scowled.
“I won’t tell you to ignore him, but you can ignore him for the moment,” Marcus said with a chuckle, letting go of my hand. “We worried about him too.”
“Marcus,” Dom warned.
“It’s true,” Marcus said, undaunted by Dom’s tone. “He wouldn’t speak to any of us about what happened, wouldn’t even say where you went. He tried to be angry, he really did, but he was...more than just angry. You know how he can be.”
“I do,” I said softly because I did know.
I might retreat into myself when I was wounded, pull up the drawbridge, seal the windows, and refuse to come out.
Dom though...Dom would rage, fill himself with so much anger and fury that there wasn’t enough space in his heart for him to even feel the pain.
The pain was still there, of course, but it served as fuel for his anger, and if he didn’t find a place to put all that rage, he ended up exploding onto someone who didn’t deserve the fury boiling away in his heart.
“Marcus,” Dom protested.
“You hospitalized someone,” Marcus told him lightly. “And barely avoided going to jail over it. You’re lucky.”
“Oh?” I asked, eyes going wide.
Marcus winked. “I’m not trying to start trouble, but...you were missed. If you decide to take off again, try to make sure that you don’t stay gone this time, alright? I can see you two are back to your old ways...and then some. So, try to be better this time, alright?”
“I—”
“I won’t ask you to make any promises that you can’t keep.”
“Right.”
He smiled, a note of sadness in his expression. “In the meantime, come sit down. Arlo texted and said he’s in the lobby, so we’ll get started soon. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Sure,” I said a little meekly. It wasn’t every day that the family you had almost counted as your own greeted you with open arms, warm smiles, and a side dish of guilt thrown in.
I looked at Dom, who had a look on his face that seemed unable to decide if he wanted to be angry or just plain upset. I turned him so they couldn’t see his face. “Stop. They have every right. Just like you had every right.”
“Funny you say that now,” he said with a scowl that didn’t have enough force to be taken seriously.
“Probably because when you wanted to blame me, I wasn’t ready to accept you in my life, let alone take your anger. I think we’re well past that now,” I told him, reaching to take his hand gently in mine and squeeze it. “Plus, this was your idea, your family. You should have seen all this coming.”
His scowl didn’t hold, and he let out a soft laugh. “Honestly, I’m surprised it’s gone as well as it has. I was waiting for Mason to find a way under your skin and Matty to grill you on everything you’ve been up to for fifteen years.”
“Speaking of,” I said as we walked to the table, leaning in close so only he could hear me. “What exactly have I been doing for the past fifteen years?”
“I told Matty you’re a businessman. I didn’t want to get into the details because if there’s anyone here who would know how to lie their way around that.
..lie, it would be you,” he said, and when I raised my brow, he scoffed.
“What? It’s true. If I have to admit how dangerous this is, then it means I should be honest about your other, less-than-honest skills too. ”
“Mmm,” I hummed because there wasn’t much I could say to refute it.
Well, that and we were too close to the table and potentially prying ears for me to say anything.
Instead, I took my seat between him and Matilda, while he sat next to a boy no one had introduced me to, but I assumed must be the nephew, Micah.
A new, bright voice came echoing down the hallway. “I’m telling you, you’d love it.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” came another voice that seemed familiar, but was the darkness to the sunshine of the first voice.