Page 22 of Her Brother's Keeper
“Thank you,” I stood straight and he closed the door behind me and chirped his alarm. We walked up the sidewalk, two doors down, to the brick building with the green door. He opened it for me and ushered us inside.
“Welcome to Filiberto’s, do you have a reservation?” the hostess asked and Nox smiled.
“Yes, for two, should be under Landon Fisher.”
She looked and smiled at us professionally, despite the glint of unease in her eyes as her gaze roved Nox’s vest.
“Right this way,” she said and we followed her to the upstairs, toward the back to a little two person table.
“Thanks,” Nox murmured and pulled out my chair for me. I slid my jacket and scarf onto the back of the chair and he did likewise with his coat and vest on the back of his. He sat down, pushing back the long sleeves of his gray Henley over his forearms. I smiled and let my eyes roam over his tattoos.
“Why crows?” I asked over the sleeve on his left arm.
Nox smiled a little ruefully, “Harbingers of death, extremely smart, memories like iron traps… they’re resourceful, everything I need and want to be.”
“Seems to me you’ve got a lot of those qualities.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, just look what you did for Sage and I… what you do for us.”
“I try.”
We were interrupted by the waitress coming to take our drink order, and then we spent a bit of time looking over the menu to order our food. For the first time in weeks I was famished, and I think it had more to do with the good, relaxed mood I was in.
There were no demands on me when I was around Nox. It was like I could breathe and be me with no expectations of remaining grown up beyond my years; at the same time, Nox wasn’t like the parents, school officials, and social workers… they all treated me like a kid they expected to fail. With pity, and a certain level of mistrust. While they said with their mouths they trusted me, with their eyes they said just as loudly that they expected me to fail.
Not Nox, he believed in me. It was in his eyes and in his voice, and it made all the difference. It felt like if he could believe, then Ishouldbelieve.
“You okay?” he asked softly and I looked up from where the menu swam in my vision.
“I um,” I cleared my throat, “I guess I didn’t realize how…” I set down the menu and looked out over the restaurant while my eyes cleared. Nox covered my hand with his where it rested on the table.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’ll all be there when you get back to it. For now, deep breaths and try to enjoy your evening. You can’t worry about things you can’t do anything about all the time, Angel. That’s how you worry yourself sick. So when you’re with me, just let me handle it some, okay?”
I blinked, and nodded dumbly, and some of the stress just melted away. Nox smiled, gave my hand a squeeze and asked what was good. I flicked my gaze back to the familiar menu. We ordered, ate, and shared in some companionable, light conversation. It was a good start for me to be able to enjoy myself and really, just what I needed.
Chapter 9
Nox
She was beautiful in the dim light from above and the soft golden glow cast by the little candles on every table. She smiled and her whole face transformed to the point she looked like one of the angels in the frescoes on the walls and ceiling in here. I guess I’d hit that right, calling her Angel all the time. I don’t know why I’d started doing it. It just came natural, so I went with it.
We ate a good meal and I think it was the most I’d seen her put away since we’d first met. Over the last couple of weeks, I’d seen her cheekbones grow sharper, the delicate bones of her wrists stand out more against her skin. She’d been losing weight, likely more from the worries and concerns that consumed her than from lack of appetite.
It was good to see her smile, it was good to see her laugh, and it was damned good knowing I somehow made that difference. The waitress brought the check at the end of our meal and I smiled, peeling off some bills to pay and leave a better than decent tip. The woman smiled broadly and put a hand on my shoulder.
“You know it’s always so nice to see these daddy-daughter dates, no matter how old they get,” she said and I watched the smile disappear off of Maren’s face.
Son of a bitch.
I plastered on a stiff, fake as hell smile and gave a slight nod. It was hard to keep my trap shut as I watched the knife twist in Maren’s chest and the sparkle leave her eyes. Her face burned with her fight to hold back the threatening tears and I couldn’t do anything about it. I mean sure, I could have ripped the woman to shreds, but she didn’t know… either about Maren’s dad dying or the fact she sure as hell wasn’t my daughter. I guess, technically, Iwasold enough to be Maren’s daddy. Shit, I’d have had to have had her when I was something like… I did the math,Christ… nineteen.I was nineteen when Maren was born, totally doable. I could totally be her dad…why didn’t that squick me out like it should? Why didn’t I feel like a pedophile now?
Because the woman sitting across from me at that dinner table was just that… a woman. Young, sure, but old enough to make her own decisions and to hold her own. Hell, I’d been watching her hold her own for a minute now.
“What are you thinking?” she asked as the waitress walked away.
“Not sure I should say, Angel.”
