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“But it seemed like she had some form of PTSD, and she still has a lot of anxiety about what happened. I keep thinking that if she talks to a professional, she can get the help she needs. But how do you tell someone you think they’re depressed without hurting their feelings? Anyway,” she waved me off. “I don’t know. I either want to be a therapist or a psychologist. One or the other. I think there’s a lot of kids like Kaye that could use someone to listen to them.”
Psychology is a complex study. I worked my ass off to get my doctorate, and I still don’t feel like I know everything. But I knew that day that I’d never been prouder.
Then, the day came when Christine turned eighteen, and I went out for drinks with my brothers. I got ass over elbow wasted until I was falling down in the streets. My brothers had to carry me home when I threw myself on the hood of a police car. Thank God it was empty, or else the fuckers would have let me get arrested.
“What the hell, Nic?” Dante and Luciano had to haul me into my own home. My older brother was unimpressed. “This is why nobody wants to marry you.”
The world spun on its axis, and I was sure I would throw up. Then I caught sight of Christine’s red hair disappearing around a corner with Kaye in tow. “Chris,” I mumbled.
“No,” Dante grunted as he forced me into my bedroom, “you leave that girl alone. You’re going to get your ass beat by the Lucatello brothers if you don’t cut this shit out.” He had a minute understanding of what was going on between Christine and me. Though he didn’t offer his opinion on my infatuation with my stepdaughter, I knew how he felt about it.
“You’re right,” I slurred, the words coming out in a soupy mess of unintelligence. “She couldn’t love me anyway. I’m old.”
Luciano snickered as he came back into the room with a cup of water for my bedside. “You’re about to be thirty, dumb ass. You’re not old.”
“You only say that because you’re old, too!” I accused.
Dante tossed me on the bed without any concern for my landing. “Sober up, Nic. Figure your shit out. And leave the Lucatello girl alone.”
I’ve been a mess ever since.
I love Christine. I’ve watched her grow up from pain in the ass teenage girl to pain in the ass young woman. I didn’t have feelings for her before, but now they’re unavoidable. And when she stands in front of me in a thin shirt with her nipples poking through the fabric, it’s hard to resist her.
One more day, the little voice in my head says. In less than twenty-four hours, we’ll be at Blackmore University. We’ll be away from my family and hers.
Maybe we can make some magic happen.
* * *
