Page 104 of Effortless

“Yes, and now look at the two of you. I actually have children that don’t want to kill each other every time they’re in the same room. Don’t act like how I raised you two was a bad thing.”

“Didn’t say it was,” Cross said.

“Nope,” Camilla agreed.

“Wait.”

Camilla stiffened on the couch. “What?”

“Is this about Tommaso?” her brother asked.

Her teeth gritted so hard that her jaw hurt. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mmhmm, I bet you don’t.”

“What did I miss?” her father asked.

“I’m assuming,” Cross said, “but last month, Tom came down from Chicago. He didn’t go anywhere except Camilla’s place. He didn’t even call me when he was down, but he left a few days after he got here.”

“Three.” Camilla sighed, and rubbed at her eyes. “He left after three days.”

“I know he was here last month,” Calisto said. “He came here for dinner.”

“Bet you didn’t see him after that, though, did you?”

“Well, no.”

“Yeah, and come to think of it, he hasn’t answered any of my texts this month. I was hoping to get some information from him about something for work, and … silence.”

Camilla cleared her throat. “Just leave it alone, Cross.”

“Camilla.”

It was her father speaking that time—soft, caring, and yet still firm and sure. He used to use that tone on her when she was being particularly stubborn or difficult as a young child. Just like how it did back then, it made her move her arm and look at him.

Both her brother and father were still staring at her. Neither had moved an inch.

“What?” she asked.

“Did something happen that I need to know about?” Calisto asked.

She could see the unspoken question burning in her father’s eyes—did he hurt you?

Camilla shook her head. “It was me, Daddy, not him.”

Cross nodded like he now had some great understanding that Camilla didn’t know about. Her brother always had been a little too arrogant for his own good. She was pretty sure her father said more than once it would be Cross’s arrogance that killed him someday.

Who knew?

“Tom’s a good guy, Camilla,” her brother said.

She shot him a glare. “I know he is!”

“No, I mean … Tom’s a good guy. He’s not the kind of useless fuck that treats women like garbage, or uses them. He’s not really physical in his anger a lot of the time, and he’s level-headed. He’s clean about business, and about life. So when I say that he’s a good guy, I mean, he’s like a fucking unicorn in this business. It’s hard to find good men who do the kind of shit that we do.”

“That’s true,” her father said quietly.

“What about you—or Daddy, even?” Camilla asked. “Aren’t you both good men?”