Page 146 of The Last Good Man

“My mom would kill me if she knew I ate lasagna from the restaurant.”

“She doesn’t need to know,” I say. “Besides, her lasagna is still the best.”

I pull two plates from the cupboard while he pushes out of his seat andwasheshis hands.

“The food is in the oven,” I say, and he helps me set the table.

“What would you like to drink?” I ask as he takes a seat at the table.

“Soda.”

I remove a cold soda from the fridge and another beer for myself.

Later, we dig into our food.

“So what happened?” he asks when he stops shoveling food into his mouth and lifts his soda to his lips.

“She’s stubborn. That’s all,” I say, my fork clinking against my plate as I rest my elbows on the table.

“I like stubborn.”

“It’s not as much fun as you think it is.”

“You’re not giving up, are you?” he asks before tilting his drink against his lips.

“Is that how you know me, kid?”

“That’s what I thought.”

A flicker of admiration gleams through his gaze.

He’s always looked up to me. He’s always idolized me.

Whenever he got into trouble at school, I straightened things out. People left him alone,mostlybecause they didn’t want to deal with me.

He’s never been the annoying little brother to me.

He showed me respect because people showed me respect, and all his peers envied him for having me as his brother.

Things got even more serious when I stood up for my sister, put my father in his place––and let’s be honest here––served time.

Some people were happy I got charged with a crimeI wanted to commit.

They thought I’d be put away for a lot longer. But the judge was lenient and sided with me, considering the mitigating circumstances and the fact that I didn’t have a prior criminal record.

Other than that, my father and I had never seen eye to eye, not even when we were a family.

I always knew how much of a liability he was.

He was reckless and careless and did not take care of things.

My mother shared stuff with me more than once, and I got to know the ins and outs of a destructive marriage.

I promised her I’d never become him.

I physically resemble her, anyway, and Istay away frommy father’s bad ways as much asI can.

He provided for us, but we all paid a price for that.

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