Page 45 of Offside Devil

Owen listens, taking a few notes in the notebook he’s had since I met him. I’d love to know if he has a different notebook for every mentee or if this book is specifically for me, but I’ll probably die not knowing. He doesn’t let anyone look at it.

He writes for a few more seconds after I finish, his pen scratching quickly over the paper. Then, he clicks the pen, snaps the notebook closed, and glowers up at me.

“You’ve been keeping shit from me, lad.”

“I’m not keeping anything from you. I just told you?—”

“Days later,” he growls. “I’m getting the recap, but I should’ve been there for the play-by-play. I’m not your sober sponsor so we can drink shite coffee and I can pat you on the back for getting through a hard time. I’m here to fookin’ guide you through it. To make sure you don’t wind up off yer trolley.”

Owen has taught me a lot over the years, but nothing comes close to the many ways he has taught me to say “drunk.” If I had my own little notebook, that’s all I’d fill it with. Blootered, steamin’, steamboated, sloshed. The list never fucking ends.

“I wasn’t in danger of falling off any trolleys.”

“Everyone says that until the moment they fall off the fooking trolley!” he roars. A waitress glances our direction, but everyone is more or less used to Owen making a scene. “For fook’s sake, Zane, you’re supposed to contact me with any ‘big life changes.’ What would you call having a kid and letting a woman move into your house?”

“She’s the nanny. She isn’t?—”

“They’re big fooking life changes!” he spits.

“I had a handle on things,” I tell him evenly. “If I didn’t, I would have called you.”

I hear Mira’s voice over the phone. I’ll get in touch with you if anything is wrong.

Hearing her say that didn’t make me feel any better about her and Aiden being alone all day. It’s why I’m not all that surprised when Owen slaps a twenty on the table and stands up.

“Where are you going?”

“To your house,” he barks. “I want to meet your wee ‘un. And the nanny.”

20

ZANE

Owen and I aren’t even through the front door when Mira appears.

I called and texted with her most of the morning, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen her since we got back from breakfast yesterday. Whatever performance she was putting on then is clearly over now. Her fists are on her hips and her mouth is pulled down into a vicious frown.

Mira takes one look at Owen and snaps her gaze back to me. “Did you bring me another babysitter? One wasn’t enough?”

I see sending Daniel to watch them went over about as well as I thought it would.

“Where is he?” I ask instead of taking the bait on that question.

Daniel pops up from behind the counter, voice low. “I told her I wasn’t a babysitter, Z. I said I was just here to play with the kid.”

“And I told you I didn’t believe you and that you should leave,” Mira hisses over her shoulder.

“Why are you both whispering?”

Before they can answer, Aiden comes whipping down the stairs. He stops halfway down and jabs a finger at the counter Daniel just disappeared behind. He’s silent, but there’s a wide smile spread across his face.

I had nothing to worry about.

“Aiden found you, Daniel.” My best friend lumbers out of his hiding spot and Mira looks back to me, with the venom in her eyes remaining exactly as deadly as it has been. “They’ve been playing hide-and-seek for two hours. Aiden refused to take a nap while Daniel was here. Your kid is overtired and you paid me to do nothing this afternoon, all because you didn’t trust me.”

“Why the fook should he trust you?” Owen grumbles next to me.

Mira flicks her dark hair over her shoulder, and there she is. The woman I met that day in the coffee shop.

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