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Granted, it meant he might run into Renzo—and he still hadn’t found the balls to text him—but maybe that wasn’t the worst thing. And being close to Victor and Oliver gave him a sense of…something. Not quite family, but maybe the hope for one.
He took a breath, then pushed his barely touched plate away from him. “Know any good condos on the market?”
Dahlia grinned and set her fork down too. “Actually, I do. But it’s going to cost you.”
Emil shot her a dubious look. “Am I going to hate you for this?”
“Yep,” she said with a grin. “But it’ll be worth it. You trust me?”
“No,” Emil said. “But let’s do this anyway.”
CHAPTERTEN
“Santa’s drunk.”
Renzo blinked at the wall. “Can you repeat that?”
Matty sighed into the receiver. “Santa’s drunk. And yes, Ren, I know what drunk means.”
“Ah yes, my little brother’s all grown-up,” Renzo snarked back. “But are you serious?”
“He fell over,” Matty said. “He was walking funny, and then he fell over, and Sharon said he was drunk.”
“That’s…fantastic,” Renzo said. “What a role model for all the kids.”
“Some of them were crying,” Matty told him. “It’s only seven days until Christmas. He shouldn’t make those kids cry.”
“Nope,” Renzo said, popping thep. “That’s the worst thing you could do for kids. Maybe tonight, we can bake some cookies, and you can pass them out to any kids who come back.”
“Okay,” Matty said. “They probably will, but Sharon said they’re going to close Santa. Which is fine, right? Because I’m too big to see Santa.”
“Buddy, I told you that you aren’t,” Renzo said patiently. “And I really wanna smack the mouth of those assholes who keep telling you that you are.”
“They also said you shouldn’t swear at me because my ears are innocent,” Matty parroted.
Nothing pissed Renzo off more than do-gooders who acted like people with disabilities were these innocent, pure little children, no matter how old they were. Matty was a grown-ass adult, and he could hear a couple of fucks. Even if he did make Renzo pay for them.
“You know how I feel about that,” Renzo said.
“Yep,” Matty replied. “Put ’em in a diaper and see how they like being treated like a baby.”
Renzo burst into laughter. “Exactly. So, you knocking off early or what?”
“No. We have one birthday party here, and I have to do my cleanup duties. I’ll see you at four.”
“Alright. Love you,” Renzo said, then hung up after Matty said it back. Rubbing his temples, he debated about googling around and seeing if there was another Santa around the area he could bring Matty to. His brother would resist a little, but Renzo also knew he wouldn’t drop it if he didn’t get to see the guy.
He obviously had some kind of Christmas wish he wasn’t going to tell Renzo about, and there was still enough time to get it. Probably.
Opening up the search on his phone, he found a little Christmas village not too far from the mall. It looked like it was in a church parking lot, which meant it could get a little…weird and religious, but it would be worth it to just stop the madness and let Matty tell the old dude what he wanted.
He checked the hours, then hoped Matty didn’t hate him for making him late for the fire. Renzo slipped his phone into his pocket, then left fifteen minutes early so he could swing through the Jollibee drive-thru for chicken. At the very least, his brother would always forgive him when he got fried chicken.
Traffic was an absolute nightmare—worse than usual, thanks to the last-minute holiday shoppers, which, of course, would be him soon. He’d stockpiled a few gifts for Matty, but he wanted to throw as many as he could under the tree since Camilla wasn’t going to be there, and he knew Matty would struggle with not having her around.
The holidays had been somber for years, and they were just starting to find joy in them, so the last thing in the world Renzo wanted was to destroy that. He braved the drive-thru line, then found a parking spot near the food court in the very last row.
The wind was high and cruel against his face, but he held the bag of dinner close to his body as he made his way along the slick asphalt and eventually through the mall doors. The crowds were a little lower, and he wondered how much of that had to do with drunk Santa and his antics.
