AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He might have laughed his ass off picturing the old lush if it hadn’t been in front of a bunch of kids. He had no idea what would possess a man to be so reckless. But then again, people did stranger things when shit got bad.
Renzo had made his fair share of mistakes when his marriage was coming to an end. His therapist told him that a lot of his actions had been a subconscious desire to sabotage the marriage. He hadn’t felt safe leaving John, but if John left him, he would walk away without any sort of threat.
Of course, his subconscious had apparently underestimated his ex because John was a narcissist. He didn’t actually have the ability to give a shit about logic. He ruined the marriage, then tried to make Renzo pay for it, and he was still reeling from those long, early months after the divorce was finalized.
Christ, imagine if they’d tried to have a kid.
The thought made him feel a little green, and he shoved that out of his mind as he headed down the corridor toward Matty’s shop. He was a couple of minutes late, so Matty was standing outside the store with his arms folded, a look of consternation on his face.
“I know,” Renzo said quickly. “I know. I’m a dick.”
“I don’t use that word,” Matty said with a sniff. “But I don’t like when you’re late.”
“I have a good reason. I brought you Jollibee.”
Matty’s eyes went wide. “We only have that on the seventeenth!”
Renzo hesitated, trying to see if that upset Matty or not because sometimes he liked breaking his routine rules—especially when it came to treats like fast food. But sometimes it threw him off, and drunk Santa might have been one too many oddities for him.
He smiled a second later though, and Renzo’s shoulders sank with relief.
“I figured you needed some comfort food after all that drama today.” Renzo passed the bag over and slung his arm around Matty’s waist, pulling him in for a hug.
“You’re the best brother,” Matty said quietly under a sigh. “People have really awful brothers sometimes. Did you know that?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I’ve known some people who are really terrible brothers.”
Matty’s eyes narrowed. “Like John. He was a bad, bad brother. He was a mean brother.”
Renzo did his best not to wince, but it was difficult because he blamed himself for that one. He would never, ever forgive himself for letting that monster anywhere near Matty. And it hurt even more because Matty didn’t seem to blame him at all.
“We’re not thinking about him today,” Renzo said, tugging Matty along. “You can eat in the car, okay? I have a drink for you.”
“Dr. Pepper?” Matty said, bouncing on his toes.
Renzo shook his head and sighed. “Yes. Disgusting, but yes.”
They made it out to the parking lot, Renzo nodding along with all of Matty’s very loud complaints about winter weather and his sudden decision to move down to Miami Beach, which would happen over Renzo’s dead body. But he humored him and listened to Matty design his little beach house as he hit the key fob and unlocked the car doors.
“…and it’ll have a deck that sits six feet over the sand. Not five because sometimes the tides go higher than five feet. Sometimes they go up to seven, but not a lot,” Matty said as he buckled his belt, then immediately dug into the bag for his little rectangle box of chicken.
“Six feet. Got it. So long as you don’t mind gators, and jellyfish, and hurricanes and…”
Matty sighed loudly. “Igetit. I’m just cold.”
“Me too, kid. But I have a second surprise for you, so I hope you don’t mind keeping your coat and hat on a little bit longer.”
Matty gave him a side-eye. “What kind of surprise?”
“I found Santa. The good one, not the drunk one.”
Matty swallowed heavily. “I’m too old for Santa,” he whispered.
Renzo turned in his seat and took his brother’s hand. “No one is too old for Santa. You hear me? Not one person if they don’t want to be.”
“Not people like me,” Matty said.
Renzo lifted his chin. “Not people like you. Not people like me. No one.”
