Page 47 of Bad Boy Next Door
I checked the bacon again and it was coming along fine, so I set the three slices of bread on the rack above the bacon to toast it. A toaster had not made the cut for the list of what I’d hauled to this new pad.
“Crystal’s in community college. Foothills. Down in the South Bay. She’s studying biology. But you know that, right?” Nick had arranged for her tuition and rent payments.
“She older or younger?”
“Younger by three years. She just graduated high school last spring. After Mom left, I pretty much took care of us both.”
“What about your dad?”
“Frank?” I shook my head as I dropped a pat of butter into the heated skillet. “Don’t even get me started.” I laughed. “Frank never figured out how to take care of himself, never mind two little girls.” I lifted the heavy pan, letting the butter slide around to coat it.
“I’m sorry.”
I cracked an egg into the pan, then turned around to face him. “What are you sorry about?”
“That you had a shitty childhood.”
“You know, it wasn’t shitty.” I added more eggs to the pan. “It was actually pretty great. Sure, if some social worker had found out about me and Crystal, how often we were left alone and all that, we would have ended up in the foster care system in a heartbeat, but no one found out. We took care of ourselves, took care of Frank… And it was mostly pretty great. Crystal and I—we figured it out.”
“You keep saying ‘we,’ but sounds like it was you.”
“Well, Crystal was a baby at first.” I took the sheet of bacon out of the oven and checked the toast.
The eggs were done, so I slid them onto plates and then retrieved the toast. I handed Nick his plate of breakfast, and he carried it to the table.
I followed. “How about you? You have brothers, right?”
A warm feeling spread through me as I dug into my food. This was what people in relationships did, right? They didn’t just fuck and leave. They learned about each other. Talked over meals. I liked it. And I wanted to know everything there was to know about Nick.
“I’m the youngest of five boys.”
“Five? Wow.” I tried to imagine four more Nicks. His poor mom.
He finished chewing a huge bite. “We grew up without a mom, too.”
“Really?”
“She died.” Sadness flashed in his eyes, but then he seemed to drown the sadness with two slices of bacon and a huge bite of toast.
“How about your dad? He still around?”
He nodded as he finished chewing. “Dad raised us. Except for when he was in jail.” Nick shook his head. “Which is where he is now.”
“Our dads have that in common.”
“Jail. Yeah. How’d you know I have brothers?” He licked bacon grease off his fingers.
“Angel mentioned one of them.” I shook my head. “Might have started with a K or a C?”
“Keagan?” Nick finished chewing another huge mouthful as I nodded. “He’s the oldest. Lives in unit 104.”
“Your brother lives here in Shady Oaks?”
“All the Downey brothers live here at the moment.”
“That must be nice.” I missed Crystal and Frank so much. Even though I knew Frank was better off inside.
Chewing, he shrugged, like it was a mixed bag.
