Page 171 of Made in Love and Blood

“What bothers you most?”

“There isn’t one thing.”

“Well, start somewhere,” Sal urged.

He was not going to get past whatever he was stuck on if he just sat there with it and didn’t let someone else hold onto the weight for a while. Sal could hold it, if Nico just gave it to him.

“You want the whole fucking list, or what?”

“Nico...”

“It happened. I’ve fucked more girls than days of the year, probably, and that’s never happened to me.”

Salvatore drummed his fingers against the side of his face, mulling the statement over. “Okay, so that explains why you’re pissed at yourself, anyway.”

Nico scoffed brokenly. “A fucking joke.”

“Not a funny one, though.”

“You think?”

Oh, there came that attitude again. “You know, you get mean when you get mad, kid.”

Nico folded his arms across his chest, and his gaze drifted to Salvatore. “Better I’m mean to you than her, right?”

“That’s fair,” Salvatore replied quietly.

Nico laughed a heartbroken sound and fell back into the couch all over again. His hand slapped against his face in a way that sounded painful as he muttered, “For six weeks, she knew...she knew, and she didn’t tell me. Is that what it’s going to be like for the rest of our fucking lives together? She hides shit she knows is going to upset me until she can’t anymore?”

“This is not quite the same as—”

“It’s not a very good start!”

Salvatore sighed loudly. “Yeah, I know.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

A beat of silence passed. Nico’s tears slowed.

Then, he asked, “What the fuck am I gonna do about my father?”

Salvatore needed time to work on that. “As of now, nothing.”

“What?” Nico asked, incredulous. “Didn’t you just open a safe to give me a fucking r—”

“That’s between you and I, and you and her. Your father has nothing to do with us knowing what the right thing to do here is. He wasn’t in that bed between you. He didn’t throw the second pill away and he didn’t show up to my home today, asking for help. This is not about him. And besides, if you think Giorgio won’t throw the biggest fit you’ve ever seen because his nineteen-year-old problem child knocked up his consigliere’s daughter, think again.”

“No, I do know that, it’s why I asked!”

Salvatore chewed on his inner cheek, needing the moment to think. “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have said that.”

Nico’s brow furrowed as his hand dropped from his face. “What?”

“The problem child thing. You’re not. You’ve proven yourself to be capable, and trustworthy. You handle your business without oversight. You’re reliable, intelligent. Made your first million by the time you turned sixteen. You keep yourself busy. For the most part, you’ve got your shit together. I’d dare to call you responsible, nine days out of ten, but today...”

Nico hissed a low fuck under his breath. “Now that’s the real joke.”

Salvatore shook his head, eyeing Nico pitifully. “No, it isn’t. You made a mistake, and you tried to fix it. You did absolutely everything you could, son. What happened after was out of your control.”