Chapter Ten
J esus almighty. “ I don’t need you to put gas in my car, Ty.” Irritated, I threw another dish in the sink. Soapy water splashed on my shirt. “In case you haven’t fucking noticed, I’m a gainfully employed adult. I can buy my own damn gas.” Except I rarely did.
Nash slammed his hand on the kitchen table, then signed, You owe the tip jar .
“Goddamn it,” I muttered, before turning to look at my son and his six-year-old furled brows. “How can I pay the tip jar when my hands are wet?”
Nash dropped his spoon into his bowl of ice cream and slid off his chair. Going for my purse, he helped himself to my wallet, carefully pulled out two singles and put them in the glass jar on the counter that probably had fifty fucking bucks in it. Then he walked his cute butt back to the table, hopped up on his chair and went right back to his ice cream like this wasn’t pure fucking extortion.
Ty shook his head and laughed. “You did this, not me. I never would’ve agreed to a damn swear jar.”
Of course Nash didn’t catch his uncle’s cuss.
Motherfucker , I mouthed.
Grabbing my keys, my brother burst out laughing. “I won’t rat you out.” He kissed my cheek, then winked. “This time.” Turning toward my son, he knocked his fist on the kitchen table.
With big, innocent brown eyes and ice cream dripping down his chin, Nash looked up. He looked so much like his father in that moment, I had to steel my expression.
“You want to go for a ride, little man?” Ty asked, speaking slightly slower than usual.
Nash dropped his spoon and his hands flew through a response in ASL. Can we put all the windows down and drive fast?
Ty laughed.
“Tyce,” I warned, using his full name so he knew I meant business.
My brother sobered and spoke his response at the same time as he signed it. “Yes, we can put the windows down, but going too fast is illegal.” He glanced at me and smirked before looking back at Nash. “We’ll go the speed limit. Go grab some shoes.”
Nash jumped off his chair and ran for his bedroom.
“We both know he doesn’t need shoes for a car ride to the gas station if he’s going to stay in the car.” After six years, I was onto my brother’s uncle ways. “Which he’s not, because you’re going to take him inside the convenience store, buy him whatever candy he wants, then you’re going to tell him to eat it all on the car ride home so he doesn’t bring any of the evidence inside.”
“YOLO,” my bother quipped with a smile.
“You spoil him,” I accused. “And he’ll be up half the night with all that sugar coursing though his veins.”
“Relax.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
His expression shut down, his voice turned quiet and he changed the subject. “You didn’t tell me Preston knew ASL.”
I stilled, but my heart tripped. Same as it always did at the very mention of that name.
I focused back on the dishes in the sink. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he replied calmly.
“How’s the trust-fund girl?” I clipped, throwing shit right back at him in an attempt to change the subject.
I didn’t want to talk about the incident a few weeks back where Ty had gotten involved in a world of shit while he was on some job for Luna and Associates. Preston had come to get me and Nash. He’d insisted we go into protective hiding at one of the client apartments at L&A until Ty was done with the job because some asshole Ty was involved with had threatened me and Nash. It’d scared the fuck out of me.
It was also the first time Preston had officially met Nash. I’d been shocked when he’d signed to him. Then for a brief moment, I’d hated myself all over again for the mistake I’d made seven years ago, but I couldn’t hate the fact that the best thing that had ever happened to me came out of it.
Ty’s hands went to his hips. “We’re not talking about my life.” In a move that was so familiar because it mirrored the exact same tactic I’d learned from our mother, God rest her soul, Ty narrowed his eyes at me. Then his voice turned lethally quiet. “Is he coming around here?”
“You’re out of your mind,” I deflected.
“No, Preston Vos is out of his fucking mind. You need to stay the hell away from him.”
“Says the man who brought him home like a stray cat seven years ago.”
Every giant muscle in my brother’s body went still. “So help me God,” he whispered. “If he’s Nash’s father, I’m gonna kill him.”
I laughed at his attempt at fishing. “What are you going to do? Kill every man I’ve ever screwed?” I’d never told a soul who Nash’s father was. There was no point. “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Nash ran back in to the kitchen. His hands moving, he looked between us. What are you fighting about?
“We’re not fighting.” Ty smiled as he answered Nash, before switching to signing. Your mother thinks we eat too much candy.
Nash’s eyes went wide. I did not have any candy today.
I kissed the top of his head and signed back. You’re fine. Just don’t eat so much candy that you get a stomachache. Go get gas with Uncle Ty and have fun but keep an eye on your uncle. I looked at my brother. Lord knows he needs someone to look after him.
Nash’s hands moved with rapid speed. I thought that’s what Miss Loic does.
I burst out laughing. “Yeah, something like that.”
Glaring at me, Ty put his hand on Nash’s back. “Come on, little man. Let the womenfolk do the dishes. We got real man work to handle.”
Where is Miss Loic? Nash asked, undeterred.
“Yeah.” I smirked. “Where is the elusive Miss Loic?”
With her mother. Ty signed to Nash. Remember how I told you sometimes older people need looking after too?
Nash nodded.
Well, her mother needs someone to look after her , Ty explained.
Is she deaf too? Nash asked.
Ty smiled and spoke. “No, little man, just sick, and she needs help sometimes. Ludeviene is looking after her tonight. You’ll see her soon though, I promise.”
“And what about me?” I’d laid eyes on the woman exactly once before she’d run out of the room and Ty had gone after her. Since then, Ty had been tight-lipped as hell. “I think I should meet the mysterious woman who’s stolen my brother’s attention and knows how to sign to my son.” Nash told me she’d shown up at the house one night when Ty was babysitting him while I was at work, and they’d taken him to dinner.
“Soon.” Ty walked Nash to the door.
“Wear your seat belts!” I called as they walked out.
Nash waved before Ty closed the door after them.
I looked at the sink and sighed. “Fucking dishes.”