me how to make it work,” I beg quietly. “Tell me how I get him to want to know me too.”
“This house is ridiculous. Do you live in a house this big?”
Hands stuffed in my pocket, I shake my head. “I can take the two of you to show you? I have a picture of Lila. My mother.” I sound pathetic, a street dog waiting for scraps. But if scraps are all they want to give me right now, I’ll fucking take them.
The eagerness in her eyes flashes openly, firing my hope. “The one I look like?”
“Blake!”
Spinning on her heel, she waves at her brother enthusiastically. “Morning, sunshine.”
Stalking toward us, he frowns against the sun.
“You show him you give a shit,” she whispers. “Jesse is the best person I know, but he trusts no one. Not really even me. We’ve been screwed over our entire lives. That’s where his expectation now sits. You change that, he’ll stay.”
Fuck. No pressure.
“Mornin’,” I murmur and he echoes the sentiment with a quick jerk of his chin.
Playing with his hair, Blake turns her back to me. “Rocco invited us to check out his home,” she tells him quietly. “Show us some photos of our family.”
Jesse’s eyes never waver from mine, the intensity unwelcome on a teenage boy.
“Sure,” he finally agrees.
I expected an argument. A decisive and unmovable no.
“You’re the best,” Blake sings.
They walk into my loft with hesitant steps. Feeling as unwelcome as I am uncomfortable.
“It’s so, uh… homely,” Blake jokes impassively.
“Parker moved out a few months back.”
“Took all the character with him, I see,” she retorts.
“Blake,” Jesse reprimands miserably.
“What?” she quips. “It’s like a show home. I feel my mere presence is unsanitary.”
Obviously a first good impression. Failure, a million. Rocco, zero.
“I like order. Cleanliness. It makes me feel…”
“In control,” Jesse offers distractedly, eyeing my gym setup earnestly.
I should’ve let Camryn come with me. She offered and I told her it was something I needed to do alone. Now I’m regretting it. I have zero idea what to talk to them about, or how to put them at ease.
“You look fit.” I look Jesse up and down.
He’s tall, even at sixteen, he doesn’t stand much shorter than me and Parker. The kid’s got broad shoulders, but he’s too skinny; bones sticking out where there should be muscle.
“Nice try.” He barks out a laugh. Not exactly humored, but not entirely sarcastic either. “I’m a weed.”
“So was Park at your age,” I assure him. “Some good food, a few sessions training your muscles and you’ll see some positive growth.”
“You a personal trainer?” he asks. “For work?”
Walking from the gym, he assumes I’ll follow, which I do. “Nah. Parker and I own a club.”
“And you work with Dominic?” he tests.
My shoulders lift non-committedly.
They’re not stupid, they know Dominic’s line of work. Which means, them knowing I work for him lets them know I’m not exactly a stand-up citizen.
“Is this her?” Blake interrupts. “Lila.”
Glancing up, the photo of Parker, mom and I held in her hands, she looks to me for confirmation. “That’s Lila,” I cough out. “My mom… your grandmother.”
“She’s beautiful,” she sighs.
“She looks like you.”
I feel her smile touch my face, but my eyes are on the photo.
Fuck, what I’d give for my mother to have met them. For her to look at them and know I created something worthwhile.
“What was she like?”
Scratching at my beard, I look away, unable to look them in the eye and talk about Lila at the same time. “She was the best person I’ve ever known. She was kind and funny and giving.”
“Why’d he kill her?” Jesse interrupts. “Marcus? Why did he kill her?”
This was the last thing I wanted to talk to them about. I didn’t want to spend the first, and possibly, my last bit of time with my kids talking about death and the implosion of my family.
But they deserved the truth.
“Marcus was havin’ an affair with Sarah Rein.”
They shift uneasily.
“You’ve met her,” I surmise.
“Unfortunately,” Jesse mutters.
I look to Blake for her confirmation, but she looks away, unfazed by my curious gaze.
“He knocked her up and my mother found out,” I continue when she gives me nothing. “Sarah was feedin’ dodgy intel to Marcus about Rein’s business. Marcus freaked about Kane—my dad—findin’ out, so he and Sarah killed her.”
Confusion settles across their faces.
“Why didn’t Kane retaliate?” Blake places the frame neatly back on my mantel.
I gesture for them to sit down, only doing the same after they’ve settled. “He didn’t know. He thought Dominic was responsible.