Sweet as Sin

25

Twenty-six years old. How the hell did that happen? Eighteen to twenty-five had gone by so fast, I felt like if I blinked, I’d wake up and be two hundred.

Every year, I’d dreaded my birthday as if it were an impending visit to the gynecologist to check on a suspicious-looking vaginal sore. So of course I didn’t come right out and tell Nico it was my birthday. He’d had to drag it out of me.

“So. Tonight.”

That was his way of asking me on another date. Or our first official date, or whatever. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to count the next one point five dates, but I’d figure that out when I got there. He called me first thing Saturday morning, making me wake up with a smile.

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes, dying for coffee. “I can’t tonight. I’m busy. I’ve got a . . . thing.”

“A thing? I haven’t seen you in two days, we got another one and a half dates to get down to, and now you have a thing?”

He didn’t sound happy. The man hated not getting his way.

“It’s . . . me and Chloe and Grace are doing a girls’ night. That’s all.”

“Oh. Cool. Saturday is the girls’ regular get-together night?”

“Um, no, you know, it’s just whenever we can. Everyone’s schedule is so tight, and Chloe works all these crazy hours because of the flower shop, so we . . . just try and make it a priority to see each other.” I cleared my throat. “Whenever we can.”

I heard a low, menacing grumble. “You already said that. You gonna tell me what the deal is, Kat, or am I gonna have to come over there and make you tell me?”

He’d emphasized the word “make.” I wasn’t sure if I should have been scared or turned on. Either way, a little thrill went through me.

“Okay. It’s . . . kind of my birthday today. And the three of us spend it together every year. So. That’s it.”

I could have sworn a crackle of electricity burned through the phone. “Your birthday. And you were gonna tell me about this when?”

Bossy. I made a face at the phone, and tried to sound innocent. “I’m telling you about it now.”

“Yeah, and I had to pull a few teeth to do it, too. What’s that about?”

Why did he have to be so observant? I could never get away with the tiniest bit of avoidance with him. Most other men I’d known were too oblivious to the nuances of a woman’s voice or expression to recognize trouble signs, but Nico was like a hunting dog with a champion nose. He didn’t miss anything.

“I’m guessin’ by you bein’ quiet that means you don’t wanna talk about it.”

I almost sighed in relief. I should’ve known better.

“Which is exactly why we’re gonna talk about it. Trust, Kat. Remember?”

Fuck. Fuckity-f**k-f**k!

After another moment of silence on my end, Nico said, “You still with me on that?”

Yes. I was. And holy hell was it hard.

“Okay. Here’s the thing, Nico. I have a lot of sad stories. But I’m not the kind of person who thinks talking about them is a good idea. Dwelling doesn’t help. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t help. Brooding on all the bad s**t that’s happened only makes it worse. So, I don’t dwell. I don’t brood. I learn my lesson and move on.”

Nico waited quietly for a moment before speaking. “Got it. You don’t like to dwell, so we won’t dwell. But you’re still gonna tell me what happened on your birthday that makes you not like it.”

I heard the determination in his voice. From prior experience, I knew this was only going to go one way: his. So as long as we weren’t going to dwell, I might as well cough it up.

Trust. Right?

“My dad left us on my eighth birthday.”

Silence. It made me nervous, so I kept talking.

“He actually didn’t even remember it was my birthday. I had a little party with my friends at our house, ate some cake, opened some presents, but he never showed up. He finally came home late that night, and just started packing his bags. I was already asleep, but my mother said he didn’t say much. He just told her to tell me he was sorry, then he left. I never spoke to him again. He lives in Ireland now.”

My voice was steady. It didn’t waver once. “With his other family. The one he left us for.”

Nico’s silence frightened me. I began to worry I sounded pathetic. Did he think I was trying to get his sympathy? Was I coming off like a whiner?

“Baby.”

That’s all he said, but I knew by his tender tone that he didn’t think I was pathetic, or trying for his sympathy. Emotion swelled over me. I had to swallow a few times before I could talk again.“Anyway, that’s the deal with my birthday. So me and the girls will be sitting around the living room tonight stuffing our faces with ice cream and drinking too much, and watching Ryan Gosling be the most dreamy man in the world.”

“Is that right? The most dreamy man?” Nico drawled. He was playing along, letting me off the hook, keeping his word that we wouldn’t dwell.

For that, I fell a little harder for him.

“Yep. Definitely the most dreamy man in the world. Maybe in the entire universe. No one could compare to my Ry-Ry.”“So he’s up there with Bob, the toothless wonder?”