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“You tolerated me at best,” Rumi said, pointing his beer bottle at me. “And that was only if Mom was watching.”
“Crybaby,” I muttered, making him chuckle.
“He’s got Em’s smile though,” Rumi said. “You notice that?”
“How could I miss it?”
“The rest is all you, though. Kid’s a bruiser. He’s gonna be bigger than me by the time he’s twelve.”
“I can’t believe I have a kid,” I murmured, shaking my head.
I wanted to both punch something and scream the news from the rooftops. I had a son. A two-year-old son. A son that looked just like me and was currently sleeping upstairs. It was wild.
“Unpopular opinion,” Rumi said hesitantly. “But you couldn’t havepickeda better mother for him.”
I just looked at him.
“She fucked up, clearly, and I’m seriously fuckin’ pissed.”
I huffed.
“But she’s good with him, man, and he adores her. She’s a good mom, even if she did a shitty thing.”
“Can’t even wrap my head around the fact that she just didn’t say anythin’ for three fuckin’ years.”
“Me either,” Rumi muttered.
“Her parents died.”
“What?” Rumi watched me walk to the fridge, his eyes wide.
“Yep.” I grabbed another beer. “Car accident.”
“Sad for her, but I sure as shit won’t miss ’em,” Rumi said flatly.
“No shit.”
“That’s why she came up here?”
“Part of it,” I confirmed. “Realized she couldn’t support him on her own.”
“She’s here for money?” The look on my brother’s face was a mixture of surprise and disgust.
“I don’t think it’s as mercenary as that,” I said tiredly. “There’s a long ass story, but the CliffsNotes version is that her parents wouldn’t support her if she had any contact with me, and she was afraid to rock the boat. Once they were gone, she tried to do it on her own and finally realized it was time to come home.”
“Jesus.”
“Her fuckin’ parents, man,” I said, shaking my head. “What a couple of psychopaths.”
“They were always fuckin’ weird,” Rumi replied. “You remember when we had that big Halloween party in elementary school, and they said Em couldn’t eat any of the candy?”
“Yeah,” I said, remembering Emilia in her pigtails, smiling as she eyeballed all the shit she wasn’t allowed to have. “Thing that always stuck with me was the fact that she didn’t eat any of it even though they weren’t there watchin’.”
“I woulda fuckin’ gorged myself,” Rumi said with a shrug. “Worry about the fallout later.”
“Me too.” Hell, any kid would have had at least one treat and damned the consequences, but not Emilia.
“Seems like they were good to Rhett, though,” Rumi said, reaching up to pull his hair out of his face into a ponytail. “He mentioned them a few times earlier. All good things.”
