That’s when Keli came out with the zinger of a solution. ‘Do you have him on Find My Friends? Could you see where he is? If he’s at work, then that at least solves that mystery.’
Emmy jumped from her seat. Of course! She should have thought of that, but she’d been so harassed with all the dad stuff and then as soon as she came into work her phone had gone into her locker.
She grabbed it out, switched it on, put it in the centre of the table while it was booting up. The other two watched intently. When the screen came fully alive, she tapped her Find My Friends icon and then searched for his name. There he was. Cormac Sweeney. She clicked on it and waited for what seemed like forever until she got her answer…
Cormac Sweeney was no longer sharing his location with her.
‘Crap,’ Keli groaned.
Emmy’s stomach sank. Why? Why would he switch that off? There was only one feasible reason that he didn’t want her to know where he was. He was hiding something. Or someone.
‘What are you going to do? Can we help?’ Keli asked, sympathy oozing from her words.
Emmy shook her head. ‘No. I think I have to do this myself. And soon, because I can’t stand feeling this way.’ She wasn’t lying. All the stuff with her parents, the way her dad had acted, the chaos he’d caused. It had pushed her to the absolute certainty that if someone ever cheated on her, it would be over, no questions asked.
A plan began to form in her mind. She had an hour-long break later. Cormac wouldn’t for a second expect her to be anywhere else than at the hospital, so his guard would be down. The station he worked at was only a mile away, so she could be there and back in ten minutes. If he was there, she’d come up with some reason for dropping by.
If he wasn’t… well, then at least she’d know if she was going to start the new year off as someone who was very definitely single.
11
DARIO
‘This is a joke, right?’ That was Matty’s incredulous response to bombshell Dario had just dropped about the future of the restaurant. ‘You’re not serious.’
Dario was so desperately trying to hold it together he could barely breathe. ‘I’m serious, son. We have until midnight to accept the offer, but I already know what the answer will be because I’m all out of options.’
‘No way. You can’t be.’ The pitch and volume of Matty’s voice was rising. ‘Grandad would never allow it. There’s no way he’ll ever let this place go and you’re a prick for even suggesting it.’
And there it was. His son’s temper. Dario wasn’t making excuses for him, but at the same time, he knew Matty’s words came out of passion and love for what they had here. And for what was supposed to become his in the future.
‘Matty, there’s nothing you can say that I haven’t said, tried or felt myself. This is where we are, and I’m devastated that it’s happened, but there’s no choice. This is it.’
Matty turned to his mother. ‘You knew about this?’
Nicky shot a ‘told you so’ glare at Dario. ‘See! Always the sidekick that comes off worst.’ She switched back to their son.‘Yes, I knew about it, but right up until about an hour ago, your dad was still trying to find a way to save it. I know this hurts, son…’
‘Really? You know?’
There was a tone in Matty’s words that Dario didn’t like, so he immediately stepped in. ‘Watch yourself, Matty. You won’t speak to your mother like that.’
Nicky immediately put her hand up. ‘Thank you, but you don’t need to defend me, Dario.’ She turned back to their son. ‘Matty, enough. I know you’re angry, but you’re firing it in the wrong place and you’re not the only one that’s hurting here.’
‘No, but I’m the only one whose whole life fricking plan has just been screwed.’ He stood up, fury obvious in the blaze of his eyes and the sneer of his top lip. ‘Well done, Dad. Great job.’
With that, he turned and stormed out, banging the door behind him.
There was a silence throughout the whole building as everyone stopped what they were doing and tried to work out why Matty was slamming doors, before they probably decided it was nothing they hadn’t seen before and got back to work.
‘You okay?’ Nicky asked Dario.
Was he okay? Nope. But was there any point in saying that? Also, nope. ‘Yeah. You?’
‘No. I want to go kick all six foot of our son’s arse for being so fricking hot-headed and only thinking about himself, but my legs won’t reach that high.’
Dario tried to walk the middle line. The last thing he wanted was for Nicky and Matty to be pissed off with each other over this. ‘We were all like that once upon a time.’
‘No, you weren’t,’ Nicky objected. ‘If you were arrogant and wild, I’d have fancied you so much more. Throw in a couple of hundred grand in the bank and cut your working week by about forty hours, and we’d probably still be married.’
