Friends & Forever by J.M. Darhower Read Free Book Online Page B

down,
but her feet dangled inches from the ground as she wiggled in his arms, her
cheeks flushing. "I'm innocent, tesoro ."
    A smile tugged her lips as she
wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning her head over to kiss him. "You
swear?"
    "You know I do."
    Laughing, Haven pushed away from him
when he set her back on her feet. She knelt down to tie Maura's shoes when
Vinnie ran over to his parents, tossing the ball to his father. "Dad,
Uncle Carmine's good at football! He throws much better than you."
    Carmine grinned smugly as Dom's gaze
bounced toward him. He'd come to like kids because of their lack of filter.
Didn't matter what it was—they said whatever the fuck was on their mind,
propriety be damned.
    "Yeah, well, your uncle used to
play when we were younger. He was starting quarterback for the high school
varsity team, almost got the chance to play in college."
    "Why didn't he?" Vinnie's
attention shifted from his father straight to Carmine. "Why didn't you
play?"
    "Shit happened."
    Tess groaned. "Don't curse at my
son."
    Carmine didn't even miss a beat as he
amended his statement. "Stuff happened."
    "What stuff?" Vinnie asked,
eyes wide.
    Carmine wished he could be honest,
but that was an ugly truth for a kid to hear. Vinnie still looked at everything
with bright eyes, like he believed the world was a beautiful place to be. And
while some of it was beautiful, Carmine knew there was a lot of fucking ugly
out there, absolutely appalling, the kind of ugly that bred nightmares. He
hadn't known about it at that age, either… had still believed in the
Happily-Ever-After Once-Upon-A-Time bullshit… and he didn't ever want to be the
one to take that away from anybody. He'd harmed enough people in his life.
    "My throwing arm got
injured," Carmine said. It was a half-truth, at least. He had gotten shot
in his arm, making it unusable for a while. "By the time it got better,
well… I'd missed my chance."
    Arms slipped around him from behind,
hands linking together over his stomach as Haven tilted her chin up and rested
it on his shoulder. He felt her lips gently press against his neck, a tingle
radiating along the skin. It was a kiss of understanding, a small peck of
gratitude. She knew the truth of why that dream went up in smoke.
    Vinnie made a face, scrunching up his
nose as he tossed the ball into the air and caught it again. "That sucks."
    Carmine laughed. "Yeah, I can
think of quite a few words to describe exactly how much it sucked."
    "But he's not going to say those
words," Tess chimed in. "Is he?"
    Carmine mock saluted her.
    "So yeah," Dom said,
grasping his son by the shoulder and squeezing. "That's the reason he's
better than me at throwing, but there's a lot I'm better than your uncle at."
    Carmine's brow furrowed, him and
Vinnie speaking at the same time, saying the same damn thing. "Like what ?"
    Dom glared at both of them.
"Like computers… and school. Your uncle was a terrible student. You
should've seen his grades."
    "So you're a nerd," Carmine
said, waving him off. "Big deal."
    Dom pointed at him. "It is a big deal."
    Carmine looked away from his brother,
instantly meeting Vinnie's curious eyes. Carmine held his gaze for a moment
before turning his head and looking at his daughter, who always seemed to be
watching him.
    Ah, right. Kids.
    He still sometimes forgot the little
ones actually looked up to him.
    Who ever thought he would be a
role model?
    God help these fucking DeMarco kids.
    "Right," Carmine said,
looking back at Dom. "Yeah, you're right. You got me there. That's
important, you know… going to school and studying and getting good grades and
reading and writing and algebra and graduating suma cuma ladi - dadi -da
or whatever. That shit matters."
    Tess groaned, but Carmine just
shrugged.
    Hell, he thought he did pretty good
there.
    "Anyway," Dom said loudly,
rubbing his hands together as he looked around at all of them. "Time to
get this party started. Who's ready?"
    "Oh, me! Me! Me!" Maura
yelled,