Page 47 of Badd Daddy
“Against them?”
He rolled a shoulder, staring out the window. “Liv, I…” His sigh was more of a growl. “It’s history. No sense digging it up. They’re all in their graves, now.”
I recognized his need to let it go, and nodded. “Okay.”
“Just like that, huh?”
I shrugged. “If you don’t want to, or can’t bring yourself to talk about it, I understand. I’m not going to push or pry.”
“I…well, I appreciate that,” he said. “More’n you know.”
“Badd’s Bar and Grill, then?”
He nodded. “Bax said he’d be there this afternoon. Sunday lunch with the crew is a thing, I guess. Should be some good grub.”
I felt a little woozy at his suggestion. “The crew, meaning…your family?”
He gazed at me. “Didn’t think of it like that. We can go somewhere else.”
I shook my head, resolved to not make more of it than need be. “No, it’s fine. It sounds like fun.”
It sounded like a date, is what it sounded like…with his extended family.
It turned out we were just down the road, so the drive there was short. The parking spots along the street near the bar were filled with trucks of all sizes and colors. A big motorcycle was parked out front, and there was a giant yacht in the harbor down on the quay which something told me belonged to someone in the bar. There was music thudding from within, and a sandwich board was placed outside the propped-open doors which read in neat block lettering:“Closed for a private event. Open to the public Monday!”
We found an open parking spot a dozen or so feet down the road from the bar, and made our way toward it. I sensed nerves jangling in Lucas, but wasn’t sure what to say. We paused at the open doors, and Lucas seemed hesitant to go in.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded, and then shook his head. “I shoulda been straight with you. The whole gang meets here every Sunday, but this is the first time I’ve been to one of these gatherings. I kinda invited you because I need some moral support.”
I frowned. “They’re your family.”
He nodded, glanced at me. “Yeah. But…” he trailed off.
“What?”
His head ducked. Shoulders slumped. “I didn’t even know I had family other than my kids and my estranged brother until a couple years ago.”
“Really?”
“I was hiding down in Oklahoma. Drinkin’ myself into a goddamned stupor every fuckin’ day…didn’t know Liam and Lena had had any kids, let alone fuckin’eightof ’em.” His drawl was pronounced, and his language saltier than ever. Signs of agitation, as if I needed any further proof other than his overall demeanor.
“Lucas…”
He huffed, half growl, half sigh. “Rome found out, dragged his brothers up here. Never left. Now I’m here, and I don’t know my own kin from Adam. They all got wives and girlfriends and fiancées and kids, and my own boys are settlin’ down, and I…” He swallowed hard. “I can’t bring myself to go in there.”
“Why not?”
“I was a fuckin’ coward, Liv. Hid from my own brother because of…shit. Not goin’ there. Point is, they don’t know me. I don’t know what I was thinkin’, draggin’ you into this damned mess.”
I smiled at him, resting my hand on his shoulder. “There’s never any time like the present for mending things with family.” I was standing close enough to him that I could feel his body heat and his anxiety. “Do they hold ill will toward you?”
He scoffed. “Hell, no. The opposite. They’ve been badgerin’ me to get to one of these gatherings for months. I’ve just been too damn chicken. And now I’m hidin’ behind a woman.” He growled, slapping himself in the forehead. “God, I’m such a fuckin’ tool.”
“Positive self-talk, Lucas. Remember?”
“That shit may work for stayin’ on a paddleboard, but this here is serious emotional baggage.”