Fat Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

Having been a foster kid herself, she’ll be able to relate to Dwayde. Plus, she’s as tough as ever and has the balls to stand up to his grandparents’ high-powered attorney. If not for our past, you would have already hired her.”
    “But we do have a past,” Victor counters, “and you’d be smart to remember that.”
    “I remember just fine, but it has nothing to do with Dwayde.”
    “Maybe not. But it has everything to do with you.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, certain I’m not going to like the answer.
    “I think you know.”
    Jaw muscles ticking, I curve my hand around the bottle. “Why don’t you spell it out for me just the same?”
    “All right, I will,” he says, as if relishing the chance to knock some sense into me. “When Dee took off, you were a fucked-up mess.”
    “Victor!” Isabelle interjects.
    “I’m not going to coddle him, Isabelle,” he continues without taking his hard gaze off me. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d stop writing. Or when you’d start drinking like your old man.”
    Those first few years after Dee left are tattooed on my soul. I don’t need Victor’s swift kick in the nuts to remind me of when sleep wouldn’t come unless I was passed out drunk. When getting through the next hour wasn’t possible without a shot of Jack Daniels. When no matter how much booze fogged my brain or how many willing bodies I used to exorcise Dee, I still couldn’t forget.
    “I know you loved her, Mick. We all did. But you took it the hardest. And it still affects you, man. That’s why you don’t stick with one woman. It’s why you chose to follow your father’s ambitions instead of your own. It’s why you haven’t written in years.”
    The armchair psychology grates on me, mainly because it’s true. Swirling the last of my cola, I say with a nonchalance I’m not close to feeling, “Let me know when you’ve finished your analysis, Doctor , so we can get back to the matter at hand.”
    “Refute it, then,” Victor challenges me. “Better yet, tell me you saw Dee today and didn’t feel a damn thing.”
    “I went to see Dee today only to hire her,” I repeat, sidestepping the question.
    Victor snorts with derision. “I don’t know which pisses me off more. That you took it upon yourself to go hire my son the very lawyer I told you I didn’t want or that I can see you’re already halfway back in love with her.”
    Temper as vicious as a pit bull snaps at my throat. Springing to my feet, I brace my palms on the table and lean forward. Victor shoots out of his chair just as fast, and we square off, nose to nose.
    Good. I’m itching for a fight. It’s what I know. “What I feel or what I do about Deeana is none of your fucking business.”
    “It involves my son so I’m making it my business.”
    “Vittorio! Micah!” Isabelle shouts. “Stop this. You are brothers.”
    “Stay out of it, Isabelle,” Victor orders, his nostrils flaring. “If Mick thinks he can kick my ass, let him try.”
    “Is that what you want?” She slams the oven door closed. “For Dwayde to come home and find the two men he respects the most going at each other?”
    Temper is no match for the hot tug of guilt, which turns my anger inward. I should be past this shit. Past reacting like my old man. “I’m sorry, Isabelle. Victor.” I straighten and scrub my fingers through my hair. “After everything you and your family have done for me, I went to Dee because I owe it to you to fix this.”
    “Christ!” Victor seethes, slumping back in his chair. “Do you have any idea how insulting that is? My parents weren’t thinking about repayment when you were only eight and lost your mother, leaving you with nobody but a drunk for a father. They gladly took care of you because they loved your mom, and they loved you like a son. You don’t owe us shit.”
    He’s wrong. I owe them more than they realize. “I’m not talking about checks and balances, Victor.