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I looked up from my phone and felt like I’d been caught at something I shouldn’t have been doing.
You probably shouldn’t be doing it, then. But since when had that stopped me?
Exactly whatdidshe think Piper and I got up to? What did she think about it? Not once in the last week had she suggested I shouldn’t be spending time with the girl next door. She’d obviously chosen teasing over encouragement, but that in itself wasn’t discouraging. Still, she probably didn’t think even I was stupid enough to sleep with perfect Piper Barlow. What the fuck would she say if she knew?
“Um, dunno. Didn’t make plans or anything.”
Mum nodded. “Are you chatting with her?”
It only then occurred to me that I didn’t have her number. “Nah. Rio.”
“Is he missing you terribly?” she teased.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Rio couldn’t give a f–” I took a deep breath and went back to my phone. “Rio doesn’t care if he sees me or not.”
Mum cleared her throat and I looked up at her through my hair.
“What?” I asked, already not liking where this was going.
“Nothing. Just… We’ve seen less of Officer Daniels this last week.”
I took another steadying breath. “So?”
“Nothing. Just…” She cleared he throat again and ran her hand over Maddy’s hair. “I appreciate not having to talk to your father. So… Good on you, is all I’m…awkwardly saying. I guess.”
I looked at her and felt more than a twinge of guilt for the impact my life made on hers. She wore it exceedingly well. A son with eighteen arrests in something like eight years. Seven convictions, for which Rocco eagerly paid the fines. But I’d seen the inside of the Waketon Police Station many more times than that.
Mum had berated me plenty, but never put me down about it. She’d never called me stupid or useless or even once suggested I deserved it. She just said things like ‘Well, that’s what you get for fighting, so let’s not next time, yeah?’ or ‘Graffiti, Roman? Really? I didn’t know you had an artistic side.’ or ‘Publicandunderage drunkenness? Next time pick up the phone and call me. You know I’ll be there.’
And I did. I did know she’d be there.
Neither of us knew what to do about me, but we were there for each other.
I gave her a rough grunt. “Thanks, I guess.”
She smiled at me. “Thank you.”
Lombardi
You missing me?
Salazar
I might be forgetting your face.
It was the closest he’d come to admitting it. I guessed there was a part of me that missed him, too. Kind of. But it had been difficult to miss him with what I’d been up to.
Lombardi
Yeah. Fine. Jimbo’s. Eight.
“I’m out tonight,” I told Mum as I got up to head to my room.
“Okay, love. Say hi to Rio for me,” she said.
I had this restless energy in me that I only recognised because I realised I hadn’t been feeling it so much the last week. It was a stark contrast to the settled feeling Piper gave me.
Except now, just thinking about Piper was giving me that restless feeling. A restless feeling that made my feet very keen to take me to her. Instead, I forced them up to my room and had a smoke out my window.
