He shrugs. “Says he took vows so they can’t be together.”
“Well, that’s tragic.” So, the brother in her dad’s MC is both a priest and called Priest? Huh.
“Depends if you’re the priest. He’s married, don’t you know?”
I pull a face. “To the church.”
“Why did you get a priest to marry you when you don’t believe in religion?”
“Seemed like something that’d make Maxim happy.”
He shakes his head. “I’ll never understand mobsters. Kill someone one morning, repent about it in the afternoon, go home, play with the kids, and eat dinner then watch a game in the evening. Rinse and repeat.”
“Your dad was the same,” I point out, “before the family made him clean up his act so things would be squeaky clean in time for you to hit thirty-five.”
Thirty-five being the age he can run for president.
“And we both know that I haven’t understood him for a long time.”
I know he’s teasing because he and Declan have a great relationship. He and his mom bump heads sometimes, but not too often.
“She told you that she has a crush on a priest. That’s more than she told me.”
“It came out during one of our classes.”
“Oh?”
“The interrogation of a priest in relation to the suspicious death of a parishioner who the cops later determined had abused his nephew.”
“An eye for an eye.”
“Just not according to the law of the land,” he counters.
“That’s why I don’t want to be a lawyer. I’ll pay Wynter when she graduates.”
He snorts, loud enough for Salome to yip in his sleep. “How very Veronian of you.”
“I thought so too. Anyway, whether or not your crush is mutual, one-sided, or nonexistent, I’m not going to the house.”
“I googled the property by the way.”
“Why?”
“You wouldn’t take me to it.”
“Are you mad about that?”
“Yes.”
“I told you I’d show you around when it was ready. There’s barely any furniture and it needs renovating. That has nothing to do with why I don’t want to go there tonight though.”
“Yes, you’re punishing him.”
“Precisely.”
With a grumble, Shay gets up and ambles around the back of the couch. “Just don’t punish him long enough that you start to punish yourself, Vick.” He presses a kiss to the crown of my head. “Right, I’ll go to Wynter’s. See you later?”
“Yeah, of course. Do you mind putting Salome in his crate?”
