Page 69 of Worth of Waste

“You thought we hadn’t burned all those bridges after all.”

Theo’s jaw clenched, but he turned away, hiding the anger. He tossed the remaining pile of mail to the island, apparently done with the conversation and ready to leave. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Just like when we were kids, you left me out to fucking dry, man. I’ll always be filling your spot and walking in the footprints you left behind—we’re older now, though, so I just get to do it in a different way.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dino replied calmly.

He knew Theo was telling the truth on one part.

No matter what Dino said, Theo would never listen. He would never really hear his brother tell him the truth, because he was too focused on everything else that had been told to him over the years.

His position—his title—and all that work Theo had to do while Dino was in lockup had only been to his benefit. He’d gained a spot that couldn’t be taken from him now unless someone killed him for it, and that had only come about because Dino made a call for his brother.

“You’re going to have to learn things on your own time and at your own speed,” Dino said as Theo crossed the kitchen floor, heading for the garage. “I can’t fill in all the blanks for you Theo, no one did that for me.”

Then, Theo stopped, turning to glance over his shoulder at his brother. “Do you know why I even came here today?”

“To piss me off?”

It wouldn’t be unusual or new.

“No,” Theo said, practically spitting out the words. “To warn you, though I don’t know why I even fucking bother. Where were you on Christmas, Dino?”

Dino straightened in his chair. “Here.”

“Bullshit.”

“I was here, Theo.”

He was sticking to that story, no matter what.

Theo shook his head. “You weren’t. Ben wanted to have dinner—he called the house, you didn’t answer. He sent me over, you weren’t here. I waited, you didn’t show. Last night, you left the party, and no one might have noticed, but Walter couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut and bitched to Ben about your little run in. Ben sent me over here today to let you know he wanted to speak to you this morning. Guess what I found again?”

Dino hadn’t been there when Theo showed up.

He still refused to speak.

“Yeah,” Theo said. “But I covered for you then, right, and I’ll probably keep my mouth shut today, too. Don’t worry about filling in the blanks, brother, I don’t care to know.”

Dino blinked, unsure of what to say.

“Secrets don’t stay secret in this family for long, Dino,” Theo continued, still as cold an unaffected as ever. “I don’t know what you’re hiding, but get better at hiding it before Ben goes looking for whatever it is.”

Point taken.

Karen

“BOO,” Junior said, pointing to the blue colored square.

“Well done,” the pediatrician praised. “Green?”

Easily, Junior pointed to the smaller oval shape on the wall. “Ween.”

While he still had a way to go with pronunciation, the boy did exceptionally well with colors, shapes, and recognition. Karen attributed a lot of that to his days spent at daycare where the caregivers worked a lot with the children, but she also had a lot to do with it. She spent her nights reading to her son, as much as he wanted, until he fell asleep, even. He had all sorts of learning games to play, and educational toys to pass the time.

Junior loved to learn. At only fifteen-months-old, the boy was above his age group in learning efforts, and Karen fully planned on keeping him that way. It was much easier to deal with a toddler and their tantrums when understanding them was a possibility. To understand, she needed her son to communicate.

Now, he could do that.

Mostly.