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Ty picked a piece of lobster from a slice of pizza on the pan. “I haven’t been serious about anyone in decades.”
Bexley met his searching gaze. The air grew thick with tension.
“Yeah, Mom don’t date either. Like ever.” Josiah didn’t seem to notice the clogged atmosphere, and grabbed his fourth piece of pizza.
Ty continued to hold her gaze. “Never?” Ty cycled women like a revolving door, but he had always been up front with them. He was not looking for a committed relationship. Dating was easier than falling in love and then having his beating heart shoved out a fifty-story building only to be run over by a party bus. Pass.
“Okay, enough about my private business.” Bexley laid her napkin over her plate and pushed it away.
Josiah opened his mouth, but his phone dinged. “Hey, do you care if I cut out early? Abe wants to game awhile at the arcade.”
“How do you plan to get there?” she asked.
“I’m gonna meet him at the arcade at the end of the boardwalk. Cool?”
Bexley let out a tired mama sigh. “Not a great idea.”
Josiah rolled his eyes. “The arcade is literally down the strip and public. Abe can drop me right off on the porch. You can track my location!”
Bexley looked to Ty, and he slightly nodded.
“Fine. Be home by nine. We have church tomorrow.”
Ty bristled. Out of one cult and into another, forcing it on their child. He had a mouthful to say on that subject as soon as Josiah left the table.
He snagged one more slice and waved it as his goodbye. “I hope that sketch of Skipper helps. It was cool meeting you.” He paused, his expression sobering. “And I really hope you find Ahnah soon.”
“I’m gonna do my best.”
Josiah tilted his head as if measuring him up. “How good is that?”
Ty smirked. “Pretty good.”
With that, Josiah nodded, shoved half the slice in his pie hole and rushed out of the restaurant.
“Do you not feed him often? He inhaled half the pizza in thirty seconds.”
“He’s seventeen, Tiberius.” Bexley rubbed her brow bone. “Can you really find Ahnah, or are you giving Josiah a pat FBI answer?”
Ty wiped pizza grease from his hands. “I’m gonna do my best, and my best is pretty good.” He tossed his napkin on the table. “Now, when are we telling him the truth? Because never is off the table, Bex.”
She rubbed her hands together. “He’s worried about Ahnah. They’re like siblings. Throwing in more stressful news wouldn’t be good for him emotionally or mentally. He’s impulsive, Tiberius. Like you. I’m not sure what he’d do, and I’m not sure how to tell him because he cannot go looking for Family members. He’s been without for so long, he’ll want the connection, and if for no other reason, he’ll do it because I tell him not to.”
“What have you told him about me?”
Bexley rolled a straw paper between her fingers. “That you come from a bad family, a criminal family, and neither of us are getting involved with them.”
“So you didn’t say I was but you all but implied it, Bexley. Why would you do that?” The kid thought he was in some kind of mafia. Great.
“He doesn’t believe half of what I say, and if he knows you’re not a criminal, he might not believe your family is either.”
“And whose fault is that, Liar, Liar Pants on Fire?”
She grimaced. “Mine. It’s my fault. I’m taking ownership. I’m not perfect, Tiberius. I was his age when I had him. Remember how seventeen-year-olds think? They don’t.”
“’Kay, but you aren’t seventeen now. You can’t blame bad decisions after seventeen on your seventeen self, and you absolutely knew how to contact me. You didn’t want to. Whatever the reason, you can’t keep coming back to the teenage mom blame game.” Harsh words? Yes. True? To the core.
“I’m in agreement we tell him. But can we hold off long enough to find Ahnah? It’s a lot for him to take, and he’s clearly going through something right now.”
