around the side of the building to the alley, and Sasha followed him after she’d locked her car. Once inside, she ran through the back hall to the storage room, where she could hear the two Dooley men yelling at each other.
“I’m fine. How many speed limits did you break on the way over? Last fuckin’ thing I need is to put my son in the ground alongside my wife.” Mr. Dooley seemed fine.
“You call me sounding like you’re dying and then you fail to answer the phone, I’m going to break some speed limits.” Patrick sounded exasperated but relieved.
Sasha stepped into the room. “I’m afraid any law breaking is my fault.”
Patrick’s dad didn’t appear to be in serious distress, but he was sitting on the floor with his back supported by one of the shelves of booze. There was a pile of boxes and a broken bottle of whiskey next to him. When Mr. Dooley saw her, he smiled and then winced in apparent pain. “Why would you bring a pretty girl to see me looking like this?”
“Mr. Dooley, I was just at the church.”
“If I’d get a woman who looked like you visiting me, I might have to consider the priesthood.” Sasha and Patrick both laughed, but there was tension there. Mr. Dooley didn’t seem to notice because he followed that up. “Of course it’s wasted on this one. Such potential he had.”
“I’ll leave you on the ground, old man.” Outside of yelling at the kid who’d almost run them over, Sasha had never heard Patrick be anything less than beneficent, so hearing him tell his father off was sure something. She wouldn’t admit to herself how much she liked to see this side of him. The human side.
“No, you won’t. You’re worried about going to hell.” He reached up to where Patrick was crouched. Patrick gave him his arm and helped his—not small—father to his feet almost effortlessly.
Why did he have to be so strong? If he were weak, he wouldn’t be nearly as attractive to her lizard brain. But apparently, her avaricious, lustful nature was being tested with this one.
“What happened?” Patrick asked. His father looked like he was going to wave him off, but he pressed. “Did the employee that Chris and I hired for you not show up today?”
“He’s not coming in until nine.” Mr. Dooley stuck his chin out stubbornly, and Sasha saw the son in the father right then. “My back isn’t what it used to be.”
She could see it pained the man to admit it.
“Well, he’ll be on his own since you have to go home now.”
Sasha felt like she shouldn’t be there. This was a private conversation. “I’m just going to grab some stuff to clean this up so no one cuts themselves.”
By the time she got back with a broom and dustpan, a mop, and a bucket full of soapy water, Danny Dooley was on his feet and Patrick had taken off his priestly collar to move the rest of the pile of boxes onto shelves.
Sasha’s gaze stuck on the back of his head where drops of sweat raced their way down to his neck. She could picture the muscles moving underneath the black fabric, and it made her a bit weak in the knees.
She would have stared forever, but Mr. Dooley hobbled past her saying, “Like I said, an absolute waste.”
Patrick looked at her then, and she said, “I have a broom and mop.” When he reached for the broom, Sasha snatched it back. “I’ve got it.”
“Be careful of sharps. I avoided one trip to the hospital today. I’d like to avoid it altogether,” he said, but he let her get to work.
And she was careful not to get cut. She wasn’t careful enough to let her curiosity about what she’d seen between father and son go, though. “So, what’s the deal with your dad and you being a priest?”
“My dad’s not really a God guy.”
Sasha had to laugh at that. “So, how did you become one?”
Patrick was silent for so long that she figured he wasn’t going to answer.
“My mom was really devout, and she always wanted one of us to become a priest like her brother.”
Sasha tried to imagine Chris as a priest and failed instantly. Anything that didn’t involve being a jackass wasn’t going to be Chris Dooley’s calling. He was like a relative that you couldn’t get rid of because by containing him you could keep his damage levels under control.
“After she died, I