Page 11 of What If It Was Us
I nodded. I loved Rami; he was one of the waiters who had started working at Delvecchios’ when he was a teenager. He was at least a good ten years older than us, and had been almost thirty by the time I started working there.
“He manages the place alongside Sophie. I do everything from home, mostly.”
I ate another Cheez-It while I accepted this information. “What’s up with Phil and Marie?” I asked.And how the hell did they convince Jackson to buy the restaurant?
Jackson chewed on his lip while he watched me, then gave a pained smile. “Marie is down in Texas with her sister. She moved down there after Phil died.”
I choked. I put a fist over my mouth, trying to clear my throat. “Phil?” I loved their dad—he was one of the nicest men I had ever met. Marie and Phil were the best parents, too. They were so loving andgenerous, and one of the only couples I had ever seen that were truly in love. They had treated me like one of their own children.
“Heart attack, two years ago,” Jackson confirmed.
I shook my head in disbelief.
“Damn.” I wondered if that was why Jackson bought the restaurant. To keep it in the family, since Phil was gone and Marie left. “I’m so sorry.”
Jackson gave a one shouldered shrug. “Yeah . . . Me, too.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “So, where should we start?”
He clearly didn’t want to talk about it anymore, but I couldn't fully process this information yet. Phildied,and Jackson still didn't try to contact me. It started to confirm what I'd always feared, I wasn't as important to the Delvecchios as they had been to me.
I wiped the Cheeze-It dust off my palms before clearing my throat, pursing my lips as I looked around the room. “Start from the bottom up? Maybe we can go through his clothes and donate them.”
Jackson followed me down the stairs into the basement. It was an open floor plan with a washer and dryer in a small alcove off to the side, and Peter’s bed, TV, and dresser in one corner. There was still a pile of dirty clothes on the ground.
Jackson started picking up the pile. “Let’s just toss anything dirty.” He ran back upstairs to get trash bags.
My eyes started to glaze over as I looked around the room. I didn’t want to have to do this. When Jackson came back downstairs, I wiped at my eyes quickly.
“Sorry,” I said as I used my hoodie sleeve to wipe under my nose. “It’s just . . . a lot to do, and I don’t want to do it.”
He looked around the room before meeting my eyes again. “I have an idea: Let’s do the same thing we did in high school. We’ll pick a time frame for a task, and choose songs to listen to. When the songsare over, we take a break. Take a walk, or just sit and relax. It’ll make it more manageable,” Jackson suggested.
It actually wasn’t a terrible idea. And it made the whole thing seem less overwhelming.
“Okay, but I definitely need a drink first.” I grabbed a half-drunk bottle of whiskey off Peter’s dresser and took the cap off before shuddering at the smell. I couldn’t put my lips to the bottle to drink it, knowing Peter had probably done the same. I raised it up, fountaining the liquor into my mouth without touching the bottle against my lips. I drank it in one quick gulp. “Ugh, disgusting.” I wiped my mouth and handed it over to Jackson, but he shook his head. “Too early to drink?” I joked.
He itched his right eyebrow right over the scar before meeting my eyes. “I, um . . . I don’t drink anymore.”
I laughed, assuming he was joking. Then I met his gaze, and my jaw snapped shut the second I realized he was looking at me sincerely. “Oh, you’re serious?”
He nodded awkwardly. “I’ve been sober for five years.”
“Oh, shit,” I said as I turned around and shoved the bottle behind the bed frame. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
Jackson laughed at how flustered I was. “Addie, I can be around it. Sophie still drinks.”
I turned around and pushed my flyaway hairs out of my face. “Let’s just . . . pick the playlist for the task,” I said to change the subject. “I hate to say it, but I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift’s new albums with all her rerecorded versions. I bet Julie had a field day over those when they were released.”
Jackson laughed as he took my phone out of my hand. “You have no idea. I took her to The Eras Tour for her birthday last year, inCalifornia. I let her pick my outfit and put glitter on my face and everything.”
“Oh, please tell me you have pictures of that,” I begged. “So, Julie stayed in California, huh?”
Jackson nodded. “Yeah, she got married three years ago. She’s a big fancy lawyer now, and she and her wife live in LA.”
“Well, the first song on today’s playlist has to be ‘Enchanted’, then. Taylor’s Version, obviously. It was the first song Julie played on my first shift.”
Jackson smiled down at my phone at my request. “You remember that, huh?”
“My first shift at my first job? Of course I do.” The real reason it was such a deep memory was because it was the day I met Jackson and Julie. But I wasn’t brave enough to tell him that.
