Misfits Like Us (Like Us #11)(39)

“Paul?” His face sours like I served him a lemon.

“Donnelly,” I correct. “He doesn’t like being called Paul.”

“Really? I had no clue.”

“Dad,” I complain.

“What’s your fascination with him?” He balls up another empty taco wrapper, and I pick at the glitter in my wig. I’m afraid if I express real interest in Donnelly, my dad will slam Thor’s hammer onto him. It’s why I try not to bring him up that often.

“I asked you why you didn’t like Farrow when Moffy first started dating him,” I remind him. “I just want to know what you think. Is that so bad?”

He tries to be less on edge. “I think that I don’t know him well enough to determine if he’s anything. Villain, redeemable, Bigfoot.”

“So why don’t you get to know him?”

“Because he won’t be here forever. He’s your brother’s bodyguard. One day he could go back to being one of your cousin’s bodyguards, and then he could decide he’d rather be a tattoo artist and move to Siberia. People’s lives change.”

I frown. “He’s Farrow’s best friend. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

“Like I told your sister, Courtneys come and go. You know who stays?”

“Family,” I murmur.

“Family,” he nods. “Family will always be there for you.” It has been true my entire life. No matter what cruel things people said or did to me, family was there to lift me up when I’d fallen.

“What if he’s like family to Farrow?” I wonder. “Wouldn’t that apply to Donnelly then?”

He compacts the wrapper into a tighter ball with two palms, thinking pretty hard. More wrinkles crease the spot between his brows. “You and him aren’t—”

“No, Dad, no.”

“Because I don’t trust him.”

I frown deeper. “He’s Xander’s bodyguard. How can you not trust him?”

“Let me rephrase this.” He rotates more to me. “I don’t trust him with my daughter.”

I freeze.

“I didn’t want him to tattoo you, Luna. You can get tattoos; it’s your body—but he was paid to protect you on the tour bus. You were eighteen and he tattooed you under your bra—”

“Dad—”

“Just wait. Despite that, I thought, okay, Lo, let’s give him another shot. Let’s not go Hulk Smash on him. So we talked and he promised not to tattoo you again. And then I find out he tattooed your hip, barely a month after he promised me.” Venom seeps through his gaze. “There is no respect there, Luna.”

I didn’t know that Donnelly broke a promise to my dad. “I asked him for the tattoo, Dad, maybe he was just trying to respect my wishes.”

“I asked him first.”

I don’t know what to say. I feel very defensive of Donnelly, and he can see.

His cheekbones sharpen. “On top of that, he’s tied to a family involved with meth. Do I want that around any of you? Over my rotting corpse.”

“Couldn’t the same be said the other way around?” I ask him. “Anyone I’m dating could say they don’t want to be tied to a family of alcoholics and sex addicts.”

“Then they don’t have to be around us,” he states like he’s not being the least bit hypocritical, but then he does admit out loud. “I can be a hypocrite.” He runs his tongue over his molars, his face contorting through a lot of emotions.

“I don’t think he’s in contact with his family anyway,” I say tightly. “I’m not sure he has very many people in his life he relies on, outside of his friends. You can’t take that from him—”

“Have I taken anything from him?” he asks with searing heat. “I think I’ve been more than generous.”

I swallow, feeling that scorch.

He notices and immediately softens. “Luna.”

“No, I get it.” I try not to cry.

He grits down on his teeth, his jaw like a razorblade while staring out the windshield. “I wish you would stay a thousand feet away from him.”

He’s already gone down on me.

“I wish you would get to know him,” I volley quietly back.

Pain touches his eyes that I don’t understand.

I add, “I’m not trying to get with him or anything.” I’m trying to get over him.

He’s quiet.

“You have nothing to worry about anyway.” I tuck the manuscript to my chest and grip the car door’s handle. “You say he doesn’t respect you, but I doubt he’d ever want to be with me because of you.”

It’s in this moment that my dad knows, for certain, I have a crush on Paul Donnelly, but that crush will largely always remain a crush.

And it’s because of him.

He doesn’t follow me out of the car. He stays there, staring haunted out the windshield.





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Monday, Sept 17th



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9:21 a.m.

StaleBread89: Bass tonight. Episode 5. You watching?