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“I’m not trying to butter her up,” I assured him, because she was already as buttered as she was going to get. She knew me. “I’m trying to butter you up, though, so order some food.”
Nothing about the suspicion on Jago’s face changed, but he nodded anyway and directed his brothers to go ahead and order whatever they wanted. I relaxed slightly and decided to give Mia a heads up about it instead of having her panic when this table ordered an insane amount of food, so I scooted my chair back and walked over to the counter to try and get her attention.
“Hey, the kids wanted milkshakes and it kinda spiraled from there. I’m buying though, okay?” I gave her my best puppy-dog eyes and flirty pout. “Don’t say no.”
Mia opened her mouth to respond, probably to tell me no anyway, but the sound of breaking glass had us both whipping around.
“What the –”
Jago was standing, facing a busboy whose name I didn’t know. The kid was holding his jaw like he’d just been punched in the face and the tray he’d been carrying was upended on the floor, which explained the sound. But why the hell would Jago hit someone?
I raced over just as the busboy pulled his arm back to retaliate and wrapped my arms around his chest from behind. “Oh, no. Not today, buddy. Come on.” I dragged him back through crunching glass and then turned us both to push him further away from Jago. “The hell happened? What’s your name?”
“Diego,” he grunted, touching the blood on his lip. “He hit me.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I said quickly. “Why?”
“Screw this. Ask him.” He took off his apron and threw it down, then stomped outside with Jago right behind him.
I pivoted just in time to see Mia scrambling through the mess to go after them, so I held up a hand. “You should stay here with the kids, can I go? I’ll bring him back.”
As nervous as she looked, she nodded. “Thank you.”
Two deep breaths later, I walked out to find Jago standing alone and watching as Diego’s car sped away. He was holding his arms over his chest like he was hugging himself and looked like he was about to cry, so I approached slowly and kept my voice soft. “Jago? Buddy, what happened?”
“I’m not your buddy,” he muttered. “And it was nothing. Don’t worry about it, okay? He sucks and he deserved it.”
“I believe it. I don’t think your mom and Mia raised you to hit people for no reason, and you’ve been nothing but respectful with me even though I could tell you didn’t want to. So there had to be a reason. Did he say something to you, did he push you?” I prompted carefully.
“No,” he lied.
In high school, I was bullied. Not terribly bad, but enough that it allowed me to recognize the signs. I’d grown too fast, too awkwardly. By freshman year, I’d towered over everyone else in my class and most of the teachers, too. I looked like a damned newborn giraffe with my skinny limbs and clumsy tendencies. I hadn’t found my footing yet and hadn’t started working out, so I didn’t have a fraction of the muscle mass then that I do now. To top it off, I had a ridiculous haircut that only my mother could love. That only my mother did love. But Jago? I couldn’t see it. He had soft eyes, a strong jaw, messy hair that fell just the right way over his forehead. He wasn’t too tall or too short, too skinny or too big. He was the type of guy that my gangly ass would’ve been jealous of in high school, so I doubted he was being bullied for his looks.
But I also knew that kids could be evil little shits when they wanted to be and looks weren’t the only things on the table.
“Talk to me, Jago. What did he do?”
I could tell he wanted to tell me. His chest was rising and falling rapidly and his eyes looked wild as he tilted his head up to meet my gaze. He needed to tell me, to tell someone at least, so I waited. And waited. And waited.
“He has a girlfriend,” Jago said finally.
As if that made any sense.
“Okay. And –” I shut up immediately. I could see it as plain as day on his face – the hurt, the shock. The betrayal. He didn’t know Diego had a girlfriend. Because ... “You two were seeing each other?”
Jago nodded, then fell apart in the middle of the parking lot. I wrapped an arm around him quickly to steer him away from the windows so he wouldn’t be on full display for his brothers, cousin, aunt, and anyone else nosey enough to look outside. So many things made sense about him now, but for a moment, all I did was hug him and let him freak out.
“It’s okay, Jago. You were right, the guy fucking deserved it. You made him bleed though, so I bet that felt good, huh?”
I felt his head move against my chest.
“Okay. That’s good. How long were you seeing him?”
Jago stepped back and leaned against the outer wall of the diner. “Just a few weeks. He was the first person I came out to.”
“First? No wonder you hit him, then. He hasn’t come out yet either?”
“No.”
