AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He huffed another humourless laugh. “No, Barlow. It’s a compliment.” He sighed. “Lying here with you… It’s like I can relax, but I don’t have to be alone. Fuck, don’t make me explain it. I’ll just sound like some nancy wanker.”
My chest fluttered, but I couldn’t decide if it was because he could have been mistaken for being sweet or because that mistaken sweetness was turning my opinion of him on its head. Again, I had the urge to get out of there super-fast. But, I couldn’t move and I had this insane sense of comfort.
So, I didn’t look for an excuse to leave and we lay for a while in silence.
I just stared at the stars, drawing patterns and counting dots of light. I tried to empty out my brain, settle the manic humming it seemed to have like background noise; always on, always draining. Roman didn’t seem to feel the need to talk either and strangely I didn’t feel any weirdness lying next to the town’s resident underachiever in the dark. We just lay, quiet. But finally, I had to break it.
“Lombardi?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s she like?”
“What’s who like?”
“Your niece.”
He sighed and laced his hands under his head. “Fuck, I don’t know. She’s adorable – all dark curls and bright blue eyes. But, she’s a handful. She’s barely five and she’s smarter than the lot of us. Swear to God, she’s just full of questions. It’s ‘Uncie Roman’ this and ‘Uncie Roman’ that. Drives me up the fucking wall.”
Despite the way his voice softened with something strangely akin to fondness, that made me laugh. I tried to hold back my laughter, but I failed epically.
“What?” he asked incredulously.
“She calls you ‘Uncie Roman’?”
“What’s so wrong with that?” He sounded legitimately offended that I found that anything less than fantastic.
“Nothing,” I laughed, trying to picture bad boy Roman Lombardi as ‘Uncie’ anything. “Nothing at all. Just kind of ruins your image a little, don’t you think?”
“You know what, Barlow? I’m starting to regret telling you anything.”
For some reason I didn’t like that idea, even if he didn’t sound completely serious and I had no reason to feel that way. “Okay, I’m sorry. All kinds of serious now…”
“Really?” I didn’t blame the note of teasing scepticism in his voice.
I snorted. “No, but I’ll do my best. Tell me more about her.”
He chuckled. “Fine. Look, I don’t know, okay? It feels fucking too much like having my own kid for comfort, you know?”
“Not really.”
“I thought you were going to be helpful?”
“I don’t think that was part of the deal, Lombardi.”
“Fair point,” he conceded then sighed heavily.
“How’s your mum handling it?”
“Not well. She pretty much leaves it to me.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Eh, there’s only so much she can do while she’s working to support the three of us. Maddy’s all right really. I just need a break sometimes, you know?”
There was something about lying in the dark on the shore of the lake that made it easy to forget this was the Roman I’d known for years. It didn’t feel weird airing dirty laundry or listening to him talk about things I knew he’d never say any other time. Hell, I doubted I’d ever listen any other time.
“Barlow?”
