Page 179 of Twisted Needs

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Vince groans.

“Absolutely not,” Emelie says.

At the exact same moment, Jen walks into the room. She stops so abruptly that I almost laugh. “Oh my God.”

I bury my face against Parker’s shoulder.

“Put him down,” Luca repeats. “I swear to God.”

Parker finally lowers me back to the floor, though he doesn’t go very far. One hand remains firmly planted at my waist while the other slides into my hair. “You need to go talk to him,” he murmurs quietly against my temple. I glance toward Luca, who immediately pretends not to notice. Parker presses one final kiss to the corner of my mouth before resting his forehead briefly against mine. The smile that spreads across his face is small. “Happy, happy, happy,” he whispers. “So happy.”

I follow Luca out to the back deck. The house behind us is still loud. Between Emelie losing her mind over Parker and me kissing in the middle of the living room and Jen walking in at the worst possible moment, nobody seems interested in settling down anytime soon.

I can’t focus on any of that, though. For the first time all day, Luca and I are alone.

I thought this was what I wanted. For hours, I’ve been waiting for him and Parker to come back so I could figure out how the conversation went. I needed confirmation that the two most important people in my life were somehow going to survive this. Now that the waiting is over, I suddenly don’t know what to do with myself.

Luca leans against the railing with a beer in his hand and stares out across the lake. The breeze coming off the water ruffles his hair slightly. For a few moments, neither of us says anything. The silence isn’t awkward. It never really has been with Luca.

“You gonna stand there all day?” he finally asks.

A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. I walk over and lean against the railing beside him. “You broke Parker’s face,” I immediately point out.

Luca snorts into his beer. “He asked me if hitting him would make me feel better.”

I turn toward him. “Dude. Seriously?”

“Yeah. The fucker’s been screwing my baby brother behind my back. We weren’t in town frolicking and lallygagging.”

“Luca, you broke my boyfriend’s nose.”

“Boyfriend?” Luca scoffs.

I stare down at the bottle cap sitting on the deck boards near my feet and try to think of a way to start this conversation. Nothing feels right, so after a few seconds of turning useless options over in my head, I settle on the truth. “I’m sorry.”

Luca immediately groans. “No.”

I blink. “What?”

“No.” He points at me with his beer bottle. “We are not doing that, mano.”

Confusion washes over me. “Doing what?”

“The fake apology shit.”

Heat immediately creeps up my neck. “I wasn’t giving you a fake apology.”

“Sure.”

“Dude. I wasn’t.”

Luca raises an eyebrow. “You were about to apologize for being difficult, complicated, a burden, or some combination of all three.” I open my mouth, then close it again. Luca lets out a long breath and turns back toward the lake. “You know what the problem is?”

I shake my head. “What?”

“I spent eighteen years trying to make sure you knew I wanted you.” The words hit me so hard that I physically flinch. “So why the hell do you still act like I got stuck with you?”

My throat tightens immediately, and I look away before he can see it. “You gave up everything for me,” I say, my answer coming easily. “And I know you hate when I say it, but it’s true.” Luca doesn’t interrupt or argue. He just waits. “You were twenty years old.”