Cuff Me(85)

Vin didn’t know how to explain any of that to himself.

He wasn’t going to start running his mouth about it to other people.

His dad, apparently, had other ideas. Vin knew it the moment he walked into the Darby Diner and saw his father…

And his two brothers.

“Shit,” Vincent said, looping onto the booth beside Luc as he glared across the table at his dad and Anth. “This is an ambush, huh?”

“Dad’s idea,” Luc said, taking a sip of coffee.

That was probably true. Both of his brothers were dressed in uniform, which meant they too had likely gotten an unexpected “late lunch” summons.

“I’m sure you put up a huge protest,” Vin grumbled.

“Hell no. I’ve been waiting a good long while for it to be your turn, Big Brother.”

“Same here,” Anth chimed in.

“My turn for what?” Vin asked.

“Oh, you know, just the usual ‘you’re being an idiot’ speech,” Luc said.

Anth’s grin was evil. “I love those.”

“Really?” Vin snapped. “Because I was there when you got said speech, and you didn’t seem to love anything about it. And you,” he said, shifting his attention to Luc, “remember that time Mom and Dad cornered you about—”

“Enough.” The quiet command came from their father. “We’re not here to ambush you.”

Anthony coughed.

“We just want to know what’s going on.”

“Nothing,” Vin snapped.

“Well, see, I’m having a hard time buying that,” Anthony said, leaning forward and folding his fingers on the table. “Because the cat’s out of the bag about Jill’s engagement being long over.”

“Cat’s also out of the bag that you two have been sleeping together,” Luc said.

Vincent jerked slightly in response. “Who told you that?”

Anth’s smile was sly. “You just did.”

“Fuck,” Vincent muttered. He was better than this.

“We just want to know what’s going on,” his father said again.

Vincent picked up the menu as a way of avoiding the question, but his father knocked it back down again. “We ordered you a cheeseburger.”

Vincent opened his mouth, looking for an argument, only to realize that a cheeseburger was exactly what he wanted.

A waitress appeared at that moment and placed a Coke in front of him, and his scowl deepened because that too was exactly what he wanted.

“Good,” his father said, correctly reading him as always. “Now tell us—”

“What’s going on,” Vin finished. “I know the question, I just don’t know the answer.”

He braced himself for them to start badgering him, but to his surprise, the men of his family looked sympathetic. As though they knew what he was going through.

And perhaps they did. Vincent didn’t know the details of his parents’ early courtship, but his mother was strong willed, and his father was, well… difficult.

As for his brothers, Vin had recently seen firsthand how uphill their battle had been. Luc, because of his dark secrets and the not-so-minor fact that Ava had once been out to expose them. Anth, because of some ridiculously misplaced notion that his career ambitions precluded him from being in a relationship.

Vincent appreciated the sense of camaraderie. He did. But it wasn’t the same. For both Luc and Anth, there’d been very specific demons that needed slaying. Luc and Anth had been broken, yes, but the problems had been precise. Problems, which, with the right woman and the right circumstance, could be solved.

But with Vin—Vin didn’t have any demons to be played. Didn’t have toxic secrets that only needed to be coaxed to the surface. Like them, he was broken, yes, but not because anyone or anything had broken him.

He’d always just been… apart, somehow.

There was a moment of silence as their food came, and paper napkins were placed in laps, and Anthony muttered irritably about the injustices of pickles, and Vincent started to think he might get off easy.

And then Luc dropped his spoon back into his bowl of chili and turned to face Vincent. “I know what you’re thinking, and your case isn’t different. You’re not special.”

Vincent’s cheeseburger turned dry in his mouth, and he had to wash it down with Coke.

“How did you—”

“Know what you were thinking?” Anth finished for him. “Because we’ve been there. We all think that our special brand of emotional hang-ups is special.”

“Don’t know how I raised three idiots,” their father said, jabbing a fry around the table at this sons.

“Oh good, a pep talk,” Anth muttered.

“I’m serious,” Vin’s dad said. “You’re exceptional cops, but you’re a bunch of goobers when it comes to personal lives.”

Luc took a bite of chili. “And I suppose you got it right with Mom the first time? No bouts of stubbornness or saying the wrong thing?”

Tony’s eyes narrowed on Luc. “What did your mother tell you?”

Luc shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Good,” their father muttered.

“But Nonna said you were an absolute moron,” Anthony chimed in quietly.