Page 96 of Better Left Unsaid

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dominic

I still hadn’tsigned on the dotted line, but I was going to today. Jeff was in the area, so I told him to stop by my house and pick up the contract, so he didn’t have to wait another second to have it in his hands. Hell knew, he was champing at the bit to make this deal official. So he should be fucking elated.

In the meantime, Vito stopped by on his lunch break to shoot the breeze. “Brother, I can’t stand it anymore. You look like you lost your best friend,” he said, crossing his leg over his other knee and placing a hand on his ankle as he relaxed on my couch.

I looked up from the still unsigned contract that was boring a hole in my head and scowled at him. “Go to hell,” I spat out.

He showed his teeth in a frightened grimace. “Yikes. Too soon for that?”

Vito knew what had been going on. I’d caught him up when he’d first gotten here, and yeah, I’d say it was too soon. You know, considering the wound was still very much open and raw.

Fuck, I raked a hand through my hair. “I don’t know what I expected to get from telling her the truth.” I clenched my jaw tight. “The truth, by the way, doesn’t set you free. It doesn’t do shit. I should’ve shut my mouth.”

Not that it would’ve done me any good. I still would’ve been the fool pining after my best friend, who didn’t have feelings for me at all. Friendly ones aside.

Vito shook his head. “Listen, you did the right thing. You know what you wanted to get out of it. You wanted her to say it back or at least something to that effect, and she didn’t.”

I gritted my teeth. “Thank you, Vito. Would you like to throw some acid on the wound as well?”

He brushed me off. “You need to take a chill, okay? Love isn’t easy. Pick yourself up and forget about Maria. I’ve always been fond of her, we all have, you know that, but maybe she’s not your person.”

I rolled my eyes. Was he serious? “Does that shit even exist?” I gestured my hand toward him. “Look at you and Lisa Marie.”

“What about us?”

I gave him a get-real look and cocked a brow. “You two have issues.”

“Show me a married couple who doesn’t have their issues.”

“Fair point, but still.”

He got up and went to the kitchen counter. Strumming his fingers across it, he replied, “This isn’t about me and my marriage. It’s about you.” He looked down and played with his wedding band. “You’ve been staring at that contract since I got here. It’s not going to bite you, but not taking the deal will, so there you go.”

“It is a good offer,” I admitted, contemplating things for the hundredth time. It wasn’t brain surgery, but it sure as hell felt like it.

He leaned against the counter. “Seems to me like you know what you have to do.”

I fisted my hand, feeling the sudden urge to punch a wall. New thing: I hated making decisions. I’d decided to be friends with benefits, which led to me falling for Maria. I’d decided to tell her I loved her, which made us fall apart. I’d decided to all but give her an ultimatum, to push her in any direction, and she basically said she didn’t care for me in that way. Now I was here. So, yeah, I didn’t want to sign the Italy contract because I had a pretty crappy decision-making track record.

I exhaled, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I’ve been waiting because a piece of me was hoping she’d come to me and confess her feelings.”

“That she loves you?”

I heard it, and I sounded like an idiot. But what if there was a chance?

Ignoring my lack of a response, Vito continued, “So what are you going to do?” He walked over and sat manspread on the couch again, his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward and stared at the paper with me. “Jeff’s going to be here any minute you said, right?”

Right, but Jeff could go screw himself because I wasn’t going to be pressured into this. If I was signing, it was because I wanted to. Oh, who the hell was I kidding? If I was signing, it was because there was nothing left for me here.

Who was I really, and what did I have here?

I was a son, brother, uncle, and best friend. And that was it. That was how I defined myself.

Take away best friend, and it felt like I was taking away a lot.

Being Peanut’s uncle would always be something I valued, but it’d be different. At least for now, I didn’t think I could stand spending time with Isabella and Maria without seeing it for what it was—everything I would never have.

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