Page 35 of Force Play
“Did he say something?”
“He always does,” he gripes, sitting up and resting his head in his hands. “My dad and I don’t get along very well.”
“I figured you were close with him,” I admit. “You grew up mostly in the US, so I assumed that was because you were close to your dad.”
He laughs derisively. “Tom Morgan isn’t close with anybody. He’s just an angry, bitter man.”
“What does that mean?”
“My dad is as conservative as they come. Quite frankly, he’s an asshole.”
“Wow,” I reply in surprise. “I had no idea.”
“That’s because I don’t talk about him. We don’t talk much at all, but he makes sure to call me on holidays so he can tell me all about what I’m not doing right.”
“Fuck him,” I state emphatically. Even if I don’t like Ari, no child ever deserves to hear shit like that from their own parent.
I don’t know what reaction I expected to that, but it sure as hell wasn’t for Ari to burst out in laughter. “Damn, Torres. Starting to think you might actually like me.”
“Oh, God no,” I reply, my tone slightly playful. “I’d neverlikeyou. But you might not be as annoying as I thought you were.”
Ari places his hand over his heart, resting it on his still-shirtless chest. “Lucia Torres, that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Don’t get used to it,” I tease.
“Oh, I’d never,” he chuckles. “I’m sure I’ll say something that’ll make you want to rip my balls off later.”
I mutter in Spanish as I shake my head. And when I do, I catch another glance of the ink across Ari’s ribs. “What does your tattoo say?”
He follows my gaze. “It’s just my name,” he answers.
“So it says Ari?”
“No,” he shakes his head. “It says Jae-Hyun. That was my birth name.”
“Was?” I question.
He sighs. “My mom wanted me to have a Korean name, and my dad didn’t give a shit, so he let her do what she wanted. She named me Jae-Hyun. It means worthy. When my parents divorced, my dad brought me to the US with him and had my name legally changed to Ari.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s vindictive and wanted to hurt my mom. But he’s a dumbass because if he ever learned Korean at all when they were married, he would have realized Ari is a woman’s name in Korea.”
I can’t help but laugh. “He gave you a girl’s name?”
“Only in Korea,” he chuckles. “Ari seems to be more neutral here. But when I travel back to visit my mom, I still go by Jae-Hyun, so it doesn’t make a difference.”
“Why do you still go by Ari here?” I ask. “You mentioned that you aren’t close with your dad, so why did you keep that name? Why didn’t you change it back to Jae-Hyun?”
“By the time I was eighteen, I had already been Ari for eight years. I was being scouted as Ari, not Jae-Hyun. It was just easier to keep with it when that’s what I was already known as.”
I softly grin before tossing the remote at him. “Well, it’s Christmas. Why don’t you pick what we watch? This movie kinda sucks anyway,Jae-Hyun.”
Ari’s response to that is the largest smile I’ve ever seen on him.
I think I like that.
I think I like seeing Ari smile.
