Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,24
Mason! Why are you sticking up for him?”
Mason shrinks into himself but holds his ground anyway. “You’ve been holding on to this extreme hatred and anger toward your brother for so long. It can’t be good for you. Don’t you just want to get rid of that and move on? Be happy?”
“I am happy. You guys right here are all I need. I don’t need or want anyone else.”
“Maybe you should just hear him out. See what he has to say,” Aiden suggests. “If you decide you don’t want anything to do with him, at least you won’t spend the rest of your life regretting the what-ifs, and wondering what it was he had to say.”
Family is the most important thing to Aiden. I don’t think he could even fathom the idea of never speaking to his brothers again. His advice sounds pretty reasonable to me, and the others nod their heads in agreement, not wanting to push Annalisa into something she doesn’t want but knowing that it might be best for her in the long run.
Annalisa squares her shoulders. “I will not speak to the man who killed my mother.”
Julian puts a comforting hand on Annalisa’s thigh. “Babe, heroin killed your mother,” he says gently.
Annalisa’s mother overdosed on heroin when Annalisa was sixteen, and then her older brother deserted her, leaving her to deal with everything by herself. So that day all that time ago, when Kaitlyn suggested that Annalisa drop out because she’ll end up just like her mom, Kaitlyn was suggesting … a shiver runs down my spine. Kaitlyn is lower than low.
Annalisa sneers. “And who gave her the heroin? Luke. It all comes back to Luke, and I will not forgive him for ruining my life.”
“You know I’m there for you, always. And I’ll always be on your side, but maybe Aiden’s right. Just hear Luke out, and then once he says what he needs to say, maybe you’ll never hear from him again, until you decide you want to,” Julian advises, tucking a piece of hair behind Annalisa’s ear.
Annalisa moves her head away from Julian’s touch, and his hand falls to his lap. She frowns at the wall in front of her, choosing to ignore her boyfriend’s reasoning.
“Julian?” Aiden asks, looking up from his phone. “What was the number Luke used to call you from?”
Julian reads off the number from his phone, Aiden following along while looking at his phone.
“Well, I think I know why Luke has been calling all morning,” Aiden says, his facial expression cold and hard.
Annalisa sits up straight. “Did Luke message you?”
“I just got this message from that same number,” Aiden answers, then reads the text out loud: “‘Heard what happened. Need to talk to you ASAP. I have information about Greg.’”
Aiden’s phone vibrates again, and he reads the next message: “‘Let’s all meet somewhere public. Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor. Half an hour.’”
He sets the phone down and looks at us expectantly.
“If Luke has information, we need to go,” I say before anyone has the chance to turn the meeting down.
“Do you think he actually has answers?” Annalisa blurts out, her words laced with disbelief. “He’s a manipulative asshole, this whole thing could just be an excuse to talk to us.”
“We’ll never know if we don’t go,” Mason says.
“You guys don’t have to come, but I need to go,” Aiden says, grabbing his plate and putting it in the sink.
I stand up automatically. “I’m coming with you.”
Aiden looks at me, and for a second I’m positive he’ll demand that I stay home, but he doesn’t. I bring my plate to the sink and stand in front of him, on the opposite side of the kitchen island, and he gives me a slight nod.
Mason gets up. “I’m coming too.”
Noah follows his lead, a smile on his face. “I can never turn down ice cream, even if it is freezing outside. Count me in!”
“Looks like we’re all going then,” Chase says, and we look at Annalisa to see her decision.
She looks around the table at all of us, finally sighing. “He’s my dirtbag brother. If this turns out to be a waste of time, I better be there to hit him.”
Hopefully, it’s not a waste of time, and he’ll have some information that gives Aiden some closure.
7
Moments after we make the decision to meet up with Luke, we clean up my kitchen and head straight out the door for Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor, hopping into three cars so not everyone has to drive.